US soybean industry wants to find a breakthrough in China's transgenic policy

Introduction: the U.S soybean industry requires the Chinese government to set a transition stage for the implementation of new regulations on imported genetically modified products, so as to minimize the impact on major export markets On June 6 this year, the Chinese government put into effect a new regulation to control genetically modified products However, the detailed rules for the implementation of the regulations have not yet been published Spot traders in Asia believe that the detailed rules will be issued in a few months, and will hit the U.S new bean exports Stephen censky, chief executive of the American Soybean Association in St Louis, said, "we hope that this new regulation will not be implemented until the detailed rules are published In this way, we can have enough time to prepare those necessary applications " It will take time for U.S exporters to apply for export shipments of genetically modified soybeans, and these applications need to be reviewed and meet the requirements of the Chinese government, censky explained According to the U.S Department of agriculture, about 68% of U.S soybeans are genetically modified China's new regulations require imported genetically modified products to have safety certificates proving that they are harmless to people, livestock and the environment And it's also necessary to put up signs In the first half of this year, China imported nearly 6 million tons of soybeans, about three quarters of which came from the United States According to the latest data from the U.S Department of agriculture, China will import 13.2 million tons of soybeans in 2000 / 01 and 14.5 million tons in 2001 / 02 (from September 1 to August 31 of the next year) In a telephone interview on Tuesday, when asked about the impact of China's new GM policy on the soybean trade, censky replied, "can we tell which ships are banned? We can't tell " It's a low tide for shipping, censky added, but there is some concern that export sales will pick up as usual between September and October Another industry source, who declined to be named, said new export sales were slow No one knows what the policy will be If someone is doing new export sales to China now, I will be very surprised Officials at the U.S Department of agriculture did not comment on the trade implications of China's new regulations or on the uncertainties surrounding their implementation A spokesman for the U.S Department of Agriculture said: 'the main reason that the Department of agriculture has not done any analysis and Research on this issue is that China has not published specific rules and policies We are not sure what is contained in this Censky stressed that if China can implement the genetically modified regulations in a scientific and clear manner, it will not bring any negative impact on soybean sales in the United States He added that with China's accession to the WTO approaching, China has an obligation to formulate relevant food rules according to the health management regulations accepted by the international community Censky said the soybean association has held talks with the U.S Department of agriculture and U.S trade representatives to ask them to convey the concerns of the industry to the Chinese side He said that if China's GM policy had not been introduced in October, the time President geouge W Bush visited China would be the best time to draw attention to China's leaders