China issues new GM safety certificate and identification certificate

Introduction: Dow Jones Shanghai, Nov 28: China has issued a batch of new GM safety certificates and labeling certificates to ensure the normal trade of GM agricultural products, according to officials from the Ministry of agriculture of China on Thursday Earlier this week, China began distributing GM safety certificates and labeling certificates to most agricultural exporting countries and Chinese partners, based on Provisional Regulations for the trade of GM soybeans, according to the official of the GM Safety Management Office of the Ministry of agriculture, who filed applications to China almost at the same time The official said the GM safety management office strictly abides by the 30 working days set by the new interim regulations In early October, considering the domestic crushers' dependence on imported soybeans as raw materials, in order to maintain the stability of soybean import, the government decided to temporarily extend the genetically modified regulations, which were originally scheduled to terminate on December 20, for nine months to September 20, 2003 Under the current policy, when all exporters and importers sign the trade contract of genetically modified agricultural products, they must be approved by the government before they can trade But a Beijing trader with an international trading company told Dow that his company had applied for a license, but had not received any official approval But he believes the government is preparing to issue the certificate, which could be notified as early as next week Each year, China's soybean production can only meet half of the domestic demand, and the rest is imported from other countries, most of which are from the United States and Brazil The United States and Brazil are the main suppliers of soybeans to China, followed by Argentina The annual soybean trade value between China and the United States is about US $1 billion, so American farmers are particularly concerned about China's GM policy, and Brazilian exporters are more sensitive to China's GM policy changes According to the new interim regulations on genetically modified crops, exporters need to provide a copy of the safety certificate indicating the basic information about the exported grain, and the origin of the grain is also part of the application documents Brazilian exporters complain that the provisional regulations may affect Brazil's soybean exports to China, because Brazil has not yet made it legal to grow genetically modified food, so it will not issue certificates to growers From January to October this year, China imported 8.7 million tons of soybeans, including 3.4 million tons from the United States and 3 million tons from Brazil (author:) share to feed Weibo share to: