Soybean field game between China and the United States during Zoellick's visit to China

Introduction: the Chinese government requires to add a field test to the imported genetically modified soybeans The Chinese government requires to add a field test to the imported genetically modified soybeans The new test results will not come out until September this year This may increase the risk of U.S soybean importers Zoellick, MFB's U.S trade representative, is worried about the $1 billion annual soybean trade between China and the United States By this September's soybean harvest, American farmers may still not be able to sell their soybeans to China MFB soybeans are the agricultural products that pay the most foreign exchange in China In January this year, the Chinese government asked for an additional field test (involving environmental, edible and other aspects, with complex contents) on imported genetically modified soybeans Zoellick, a U.S trade representative visiting China on February 17, said at a press conference that China and the United States have different views on opening up the soybean market Zoellick also expressed American dissatisfaction to Chinese foreign trade officials In response, a staff member of the GM Office of the Ministry of agriculture told the Financial Times: "the field test proposed by China is not a new measure, which is explained in the GM regulations, but it has not been implemented before, and it will be implemented this year." The staff member said it was difficult to say whether the field trials to be carried out by MFB would affect the soybean trade between China and the United States MFB "under the framework of WTO rules, the Chinese government is obviously familiar with the use of genetically modified policies to regulate the soybean trade between China and the United States of America of 1 billion US dollars per year So it's normal for China to increase the testing of genetically modified products " Analysts believe that "but the United States is not happy to see this situation, so it can be predicted that there will be a series of negotiations in the future, and the new year's game will start again." Before March of last year, MFB launched the detailed rules and regulations of China's genetically modified organisms management, and Sino US soybean trade had a big stir This led President Bush to visit China twice, and finally reached a temporary agreement in early March to implement temporary management measures for the import of genetically modified agricultural products (simplify the import approval procedures for genetically modified agricultural products), so that the soybean trade between the two countries basically returned to normal MFB us alert MFB analysts believe that China proposed to increase the testing of imported genetically modified soybeans in January this year, which has strong scalability and is more convenient to control the import of genetically modified soybeans MFB naturally aroused Zoellick's vigilance: "we must make sure that the soybean trade will not be interrupted during the test period." MFB Zoellick also said that it has been assured from China that bilateral soybean trade will not be interrupted by regulatory issues, but these issues have yet to be resolved It seems that China and the United States still need a bargaining process Monsanto, the US giant of genetically modified crops in MFB, also can't sit down John Gilmore, President of the company's Greater China region, said that the new test results won't come out until September this year September to October is the season for American soybeans to mature and ship, so this test is likely to hinder Sino US soybean trade MFB last year, China has already tasted the sweetness by implementing the genetically modified policy An analysis from Xinhua News Agency pointed out that the practice of many departments (Ministry of agriculture, General Administration of quality supervision, inspection and Quarantine) issuing soybean import licenses objectively achieved the goal of controlling the progress and quantity of imported soybeans arriving in Hong Kong, pushed up the price of domestic soybeans, and made China's soybean market complete the transformation from low valley to historical high MFB, on the one hand, has realized the policy of increasing farmers' income and reducing farmers' burden On the other hand, it has provided a good opportunity for improving soybean self-sufficiency and developing soybean industry According to MFB statistics, from January to October last year, China imported 3.39 million tons of soybeans from the United States, a decrease of 24.8% over the previous year An MFB Reuters survey of 340 farmers attending the national meeting of the United States Farm Bureau shows that they will increase the planting area of genetically modified crops in 2003 MFB repeat? From June 2001 to March 2002, the game between China and the United States on the trade of genetically modified soybeans was ups and downs MFB 2 in June 2001, China issued the regulations on the safety management of agricultural genetically modified organisms These regulations require exporting countries to provide safety certificates that confirm that genetically modified products are harmless to humans, livestock and the environment, and that they are properly labeled However, the detailed rules on how to implement these policies have not been published by MFB, which makes Chinese and American traders worry about whether their cargo ships can pass the tedious inspection, so they are reluctant to purchase In the next few months, China's purchase of American soybeans has been greatly reduced China is the largest buyer of American soybeans, and 70% of American soybeans are genetically modified soybeans The issue of MFB attracted President Bush's attention During his participation in the APEC summit in Shanghai in October 2001, he discussed it with Chinese leaders Beijing's trade sources said that since then, the port's quarantine authorities seem to have relaxed the inspection measures But on January 7, 2002, before Bush's visit to China, The Ministry of agriculture of China has issued the administrative measures for the import safety of agricultural genetically modified organisms, which requires that if the genetically modified products ship arrives in China after March 20, it must issue the safety certificate issued by the Ministry of agriculture of China, and stipulate that "import agricultural genetically modified organisms, If there is no agricultural genetically modified organisms safety certificate and relevant approval documents issued by the agricultural administrative department of the State Council, or if they are inconsistent with the certificates and approval documents, they shall be returned or destroyed "MFB management measures also stipulate that the Chinese government can approve the application of safety certificate within 270 days, which makes American trade and government officials show great uneasiness, because 270 Days means that US genetically modified soybeans arriving in China may linger in ports for several months, which is enough to stop trade "Our main concern is that China's measures for the administration of agricultural genetically modified organisms labeling goes far beyond the scope of protecting consumers' health In fact, this regulation can play a role, MFB can only create numerous unrealistic rules and obstacles "Then China and the United States began arduous negotiations By the beginning of March 2002, the two countries finally reached a transitional agreement The Chinese government agreed to issue a temporary safety certificate (30 days for approval), shorten and simplify the application process of GM safety certificate, so the soybean trade was resumed If the Ministry of agriculture of China takes a tough stance on the new field experiment, the previous storm may repeat itself, and the soybean trade between China and the United States will surge again at that time However, analysts believe that this possibility will not be very great through the negotiation of the senior leaders of the two countries MFB is a non transgenic MFB "transgenic" method of biological improvement with mixed reputation, It destroys the natural "lineage" of plants, so that plants have some characteristics that they didn't have before, such as insect resistance, so as to achieve the purpose of expanding production This technology is expected to save 1.2 billion people in the world who don't have enough to eat MFB, however, so far, genetically modified agricultural products are "harming health in the end" There is no convincing answer to this question Experts once pointed out that genetically modified food may have three hazards to human health: first, the toxins in genetically modified crops can cause acute and chronic poisoning or carcinogenic, teratogenic and mutagenic effects; second, the immune or allergenic substances in crops can cause allergic or allergic reactions in human body; third, the main nutrients, micronutrients and The change of antinutritional factors will reduce the nutritional value of food and make its nutritional structure unbalanced MFB, however, these hazards are only conjectures Since the emergence of transgenic products, there has not been a case that proves that people will get sick or even die after eating MFB