The staff noted that the Board had, in a previous meeting, completed their technical discussion in the limited scope project on Bearer Biological Assets (BBAs). Those recommendations included:

• The amendments to IAS 16 Property, Plant and Equipment should permit use of fair value as deemed cost for items of BBAs at the start of the earliest comparative period presented in the financial statements to avoid the need to reconstruct cost information.
• The amendments to IAS 16 and IAS 41 should be available for early adoption.
• The deemed cost exemptions provided for property, plant and equipment in IFRS 1 First-time Adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards should also be available for items of BBAs.

The staff asked the Board whether all necessary due process steps had been undertaken on the project and whether the staff could begin the balloting process for an Exposure Draft of proposed amendments to IAS 16 and IAS 41. The Board unanimously agreed that all necessary due process steps had been undertaken and granted the staff permission to begin the balloting process.

The staff proceeded to ask whether any members of the Board intended to dissent from the proposal.

One Board member noted that he had yet to conclude whether he would dissent to the proposals on the basis of the member feeling uncomfortable in relation to the use of the cost method before maturity of the biological assets which he felt violated the fundamentals of fair value measurement. The Board member noted he would wait until the staff had drafted its disclosure package proposals before making such a decision.

Another member of the Board noted his concerns with regard to the feedback received from respondents. He noted the Board’s proposals failed to take into account the representations made by respondents with regard to removing fair value information which was deemed useful to users of the financial statements.

The majority of the Board then responded that they had no intention to dissent and that the comment period of 120 days was appropriate.