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Vilsack reports progress on biotech issue

One of the topics discussed during last week’s meeting of the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade was China’s biotech approval process.

The issue has come to the forefront with China’s recent rejections of some U.S. corn shipments, which the Chinese claim contained an unapproved GMO event, Syngenta’s MIR 162, branded as Viptera.

Although the issue was not resolved, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the Chinese did agree to continue discussions on ways to streamline the acceptance of U.S. biotech products into China.

“We think we can speed up that process by working collaboratively with the Chinese to have our regulatory processes work in sync,” Vilsack says.

One of the hang-ups has been China’s demand that it have viable seed to use in its biotech approval process.  U.S. seed companies fear that providing viable seed to China could endanger their intellectual property rights.