Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs) have been the subject of much controversy worldwide owing to their potential social, economic and environmental impacts. The present work discusses the feasibility of using the benefit-sharing mechanism instituted by the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture as a funding instrument for an international policy on GURTs. The discussion is developed in 5 sections. The general features of the Treaty, as they are relevant to the proposed theme, are presented in Section 2. Sections 3 and 4 discuss the characterisation...