By Chris Clayton
DTN Ag Policy Editor
OMAHA (DTN) -- Agricultural industry groups are hoping a visit to the U.S. later this month by Chinese President Xi Jinping will reboot talks between the U.S. and China over improving biotech trait approvals for crops.
Crops such as corn and soybeans containing biotech traits approved in the U.S. but not approved in export markets remain an ongoing problem. The situation became heightened in 2013 when China began rejecting corn shipments that included Syngenta's MIR162 corn trait that had not yet been cleared by Chinese authorities. The fallout of that rejection multiplied for Syngenta, which is now battling litigation from farmers who say they received lower grain prices due to loss of export sales. Industry groups have since tried to get the U.S. and China to create a better regulatory protocol.
Obama administration officials thought they had gained some ground solving such problems last year when the U.S. and China agreed to form the Strategic Agricultural Innovation Dialogue (SAID). Officials praised the dialogue as one of the key outcomes of the 25th U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade meetings. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack stated at the time that the agricultural dialogue would begin early this year and deal with a wide range of issues.
"The vice-ministerial-level Strategic Agricultural Innovation Dialogue that we agreed to will begin early next year with multiple Chinese ministries. These discussions will showcase U.S. innovation and create new economic opportunities in a wide range of agricultural industries, while addressing food security, climate change and environmental protection," Vilsack said last December.
Yet no meetings or meaningful talks have occurred between U.S. and China regarding the SAID. Industry leaders hope biotechnology will be on the agenda when China's president visits Washington later this month.
A spokesperson from the U.S. Trade Representative's Office expressed frustration over the state of China's regulatory system, but indicated the administration is trying to work through some of those issues.
"China's regulatory approval system for ag biotech products lacks transparency and predictability, and is fraught with delays. Resolving the biotechnology problems with China is a priority for the administration. We are engaging directly with China on these issues, including developing the first SAID to discuss the role of regulation in supporting agricultural innovation," the trade representative's spokesperson stated.
Zach Kinne, director of public policy for the National Corn Growers Association, said NCGA and other groups were pleased to see biotechnology and other agricultural innovations had reached the level of presidential discussions last year. Yet, the idea of a strategic dialogue has not gone forward as expected.
"Not only have things stayed the same, but they have gotten worse in China," Kinne said. "They have introduced new regulations and predictability continues to decline."
China appears to be walking backwards on biotechnology approvals despite pronouncements by government science officials that genetically engineered products are safe.
Earlier this year China proposed adding socioeconomic factors as an issue to consider when choosing to approve a biotech trait. Another provision also eliminates any time constraints on the country's agricultural ministry before making final decisions. Those provisions were proposed in May when China notified the WTO about them.
"We don't know where that stands in terms of implementation, but in practice it's already been implemented," said Matt O'Mara, managing director of food and agriculture for the Biotechnology Industry Organization, or BIO.
China's agricultural ministry has specific time frames when companies can apply for import acceptance in the country, which can only occur after a company's product has been approved by at least one other country.
"In the past that was kind of this piece of their regulatory regime that was always an issue, but you had a pretty standard, predictable timeline when you put a product in about how long it would be before it came out," O'Mara said. "That all changed in the last couple of years."
O'Mara said there are seven biotech traits waiting final approval -- four for soybeans, two for corn and one for cotton -- and 26 other products that are in various stages of being analyzed by Chinese officials. Regarding the Strategic Agricultural Innovation Dialogue, the objective is to get a meeting put together on the heels of Xi's state visit at the end of the month.
"So our focus right now is trying to get back on the president's agenda with Xi to advance the process and queue of products while trying to get this strategic ag dialogue moving in a real way towards some concrete outcome," he said.
Industry groups initially thought China President Xi Jinping would be positive for biotechnology and U.S. agricultural issues when he came to power. Xi had close ties to Iowa where he visited multiple times in the 1980s and as vice president. However, biotechnology approvals have been limited now to just once a year under Xi. Last year, three traits were approved late in the year.
China's approval of biotech traits is particularly critical when it comes to soybeans. USDA expects China to import 79 million tons of soybeans in the 2015-16 crop year, of which roughly 30 million tons will come from the U.S. China accounts for roughly 63% of all U.S. soybean exports. Argentina and Brazil are the other two major suppliers.
Xi will come to the U.S. later this month, visiting Washington, New York and possibly Seattle. Biotech supporters hope the visit, along with several other high-level Chinese leaders, would help kick-start the Strategic Agricultural Innovations Dialogue.
"If we can get biotechnology on the agenda, I think we have got the right people here to talk about the broader implications of all of this," Kinne said.
All major commodity crop trait providers, Bayer CropScience, Dow AgroSciences, Monsanto and Syngenta, have traits awaiting Chinese approval. One of those, Monsanto's Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybean that is resistant to both glyphosate and dicamba, is ready for commercial sales in the U.S. Monsanto has held off selling Xtend, though a spokeswoman told DTN that more information about commercial intentions for those Xtend soybeans will be coming in the next few months. The spokeswoman stated, "We responded to all the technical questions and understand China's ministry of agriculture has all the necessary information they need to grant an approval. We feel confident we are still on track to gain all approvals in the upcoming months and look forward to bringing this technology to farmers."
Chris Clayton can be reached at Chris.Clayton@dtn.com.
Follow him on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN.
(CZ/GH)
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