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China gives green light to two U.S. GMOs

China gives green light to two U.S. GMOs

A Corteva AgriScience soybean variety is among those approved for import

By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com

The Chinese government has expanded opportunities for U.S. GMOs to enter the country.

On Monday, China’s agriculture ministry approved Corteva AgriScience’s DAS-81419-2 soybean for import. The other greenlit crop is the 55-1 papaya, developed by the USDA and Hawaii University.

The soybean variety, which is sold under the Conkesta Enlist E3 soybean line, is resistant to glufosinate herbicides and insects similar to fall armyworm, the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications says.

Multiple countries – including Canada, South Korea and Mexico – have accepted the variety since as early as 2014.

The approvals come weeks after China and the United States agreed to the text for a phase one trade agreement.

Once the deal is signed, China will purchase up to US$50 billion of U.S. ag products in 2020.

“This further expands channels for imports of U.S. agricultural products, and helps pave the way for buying more U.S. soybeans,” Li Qang told Reuters Monday. Qang is the chief analyst with Shanghai JC Intelligence Co. Ltd., which provides ag commodity market data.

“Approval of the papaya variety could help promote more fruit imports from the U.S.”

In addition to the new approvals, China also renewed import licenses for several other U.S. GMOs.

BASF’s T25 (Liberty Link) corn, A5547-127 (Liberty Link) soybeans, T45 and Ms8Rf3 (InVigor) canola, and OXY-235 (Navigator) canola can still be imported into China.

In addition, Bayer-owned Monsanto’s MON89788 (Roundup Ready) soybeans, MON15985 (Bollgard II) cotton, and H7-1 (Roundup Ready) sugar beets received reapproval.

Pioneer’s DP305423 (Treus, Plenish) soybean variety was also on the list.

All the crop approvals took effect Dec. 2 and will remain valid for three years, China’s agriculture ministry said.

Farms.com has reached out to Corteva AgriScience for comment on China’s approvals.


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