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AFBF says China’s biotech announcement a good sign

An American Farm Bureau economist says China’s announcement that it will approve new genetically engineered biotech seed traits is a good sign.

Veronica Nigh says the U.S. has been pushing for China to speed up its biotech process and increase its transparency for years.

Two of the 192 traits China announced are for corn and one for soybeans, the rest for cotton.

“What we hope it means is that we’re going to start seeing traits approved faster in China. Now that they’re approving their own traits and they’re improving the transparency of their system, hopefully that means that they’re turning the page to say, ‘we’re more accepting of biotechnology.’”

Instead of taking seven years for approval, she says, it could mean a lot less time. Nigh tells Brownfield a lot of U.S. farmers know there are new technologies available but not for them to use.

“The seed companies have been holding back for fear that if we accidentally export a trait that isn’t approved in China that boats will get turned around, prices will fall – all of those things that we’ve seen happen in the past.”

The Trump administration has said China has agreed to improve the way it approves biotech traits in the phase-one agreement expected to be signed next week on January 15th.

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