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COLOMBIA | Intellectual Property | Colombia will encourage innovation in the Agricultural Sector
On 29 November 2017, the Congress of Colombia approved a Bill implementing an innovation program in the Agricultural sector (known as the National System of Agricultural Innovation -or SNIA in Spanish-), aiming to improve its productivity and competitiveness. SNIA will facilitate access to extension services and will promote scientific research and technological developmentg in the area.
In addition, the law creates a Strategic Plan for Science, Technology and Agricultural Innovation that contains the 10-year objectives and strategies that will serve to develop research agendas.
The law has not yet entered into force, and is pending presidential sanction.
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COLOMBIA | Regulatory| Colombia: Ministry of Health published the list of services and medicines that will no longer be financed with public resources
On 1 December 2017, the Ministry of Health of Colombia published the definitive list of health services and technologies that will no longer be financied with public resources
With its issuance, the first exclusion process carried out by the Ministry of Health concludes and which -as we reported in a previous OM Weekly Digest edition-, aims to determine medicines and technologies that are not susceptible to be financed by public resources.
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ARGENTINA | Competence Law, Antitrust | Argentina would approve new Antitrust Law: includes a leniency program
During the last week of November 2017, the Chamber of Deputies of the Congress of Argentina approved a Bill related to a new Antitrust Law, which among its objectives will create a National Authority for Competition and a Leniency Program. In addition, the new law propouses an increase in economical sanctions to offenders, as well as a mergers and acquisitions control will be implemented
The Bill passed to the Argentine Senate for debate, and its final approval is expected by the Congress Plenary during 2018.
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COLOMBIA | Data Privacy | Colombia would recognize Japan as a country with an adequate level of Personal Data Protection
On 17 November 2017, the Colombian Authority on Personal Data Protection (Superintendence of Industry and Commerce -SIC-) published a Circular Letter proposing the inclusion of Japan in the list of countries that provide adequate Personal Data Protection.
This, by virtue of the External Circular on International Data Transfer, which contains the standards to establish whether a receiving country offers adequate levels of protection, as well as the procedure that those responsible for processing data must follow to request the Declaration of Conformity necessary for the international transfer of personal data.
