The delegates from over 130 countries who gathered in Montreal last weekend surprised just about everyone by reaching agreement on new rules to govern international trade in genetically modified foods. A similar effort broke down a year ago, and the failure to launch a new round of world trade talks in Seattle last year left many people convinced that any large-scale multilateral negotiations were doomed. The Montreal talks succeeded for two reasons. First, they could not afford to fail. Second, they took a new tack: Nongovernment groups were brought into the building and given a reason to see the talks succeed.

Genetically modified foods are big business. About 28 million hectares of genetically engineered plants were cultivated around the world last year. The United States is the biggest single producer of the foods: One-quarter of all corn and about 40 percent of all soybeans grown in that country are genetically engineered. Japan is thought to be the world's biggest importer of genetically modified organisms because of the country's reliance on farm imports. Over 30 percent of soybeans imported from the U.S. in 1998 were genetically modified.

Japanese consumers, like many of their counterparts in Europe and a growing number in the U.S., harbor concerns about such foods. Governments are being pressed to allay these worries, which made it urgent that an agreement be reached in Montreal. Failure to design an international protocol would have left a patchwork of national regulations likely to ensnarl international trade, create frictions and contribute to a general deterioration of international relations.