Chinese Hurdles on GMO Corn Import

The world’s largest seed-making firms, Syngenta AG and Dow AgroSciences, are reportedly putting in place tighter controls on US biotech seed sales as a result of Chinese import barriers around some of the genetically engineered crops in question. The sales will now come with strict planting and use instructions, the multinationals both said at the end of November.

The move comes as the latest step in an international trade saga on China’s hesitation towards letting certain types of genetically modified corn enter its market. While imports of GMO crops are not banned outright in the Asian giant, they are subject to a strict approval process by Beijing.

US global food processing company Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) at the end of November filed a lawsuit against Swiss-based agribusiness firm Syngenta for losses resulting from the latter’s sale of genetically engineered corn in the US, which has not yet won regulatory approval in China.

According to media reports, ADM has claimed that Syngenta’s actions have resulted in “substantial economic losses and damages,” after some US corn shipments were later turned away by Chinese customs following the detection of unapproved modified strains late last year.

ADM’s suit suggests that the losses were a result of Syngenta’s failure to properly manage and separate the modified corn in question from other varieties – a charge that a Syngenta spokesman has said is “without merit.” The Swiss company added it strongly upholds “the right of growers to have access to approved new technologies.”

The corn in question, dubbed Viptera, is geared towards preventing crop losses from certain pests. The biotech product represents around 30 percent of Syngenta’s North American corn-seed sales.

The lawsuit is being increasingly watched by experts given its potential implications for the biotechnology debate and international trade policy, and is one of several cases filed in over 10 US states alleging losses of more than US$1 billion for American farmers, due to China’s reluctance in buying US corn following the discovery of the unapproved Viptera strain.

US corn exports to China fell by around 87 percent in the first nine months of 2014 compared with the previous year, according to US agriculture department data, though how much of that was due to the Viptera issue is unclear. China accounted for around 12 percent of the US total corn exports in 2012.

China’s vice-minister of agriculture Yu Xinrong also recently announced his support towards removing a decade-old domestic ban on foreign investment into GMO research, following a move by the National Development and Reform Commission to include such research in an updated version of a draft catalogue of industries where international investments would be allowed.

This would, however, keep in place current restrictions on the actual development and growth of crops. The draft catalogue is now under consultation.