Through a discursive and organizational analysis we seek to understand the Biosafety Protocol and the place of socioeconomic regulation of agricultural biotechnology in it.  The literature on the Protocol has been fairly extensive, but little of it has explored debates over socioeconomic regulation during the negotiation process or the regulatory requirements specified in the final document.  This case is especially important at a time when the spread of neoliberalism is increasingly associated with deregulation, because it sheds light on the conditions under which circumvention of the market is deemed legitimate and socio-economic regulation of agricultural technology is possible.