"Streamlined biotech approvals by China critical for US agriculture"
Next month the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade will meet and AFBF is hopeful biotech approvals will top the agenda. AFBF economist Veronica Nigh says stable regulations from China would benefit U.S. agriculture.
Nigh: "In 2015, China purchased $20.3 billion worth of American ag products. Roughly 54 percent of that were from biotech derived plant products, so clearly market access for this portion of U.S. ag exports is important and unfortunately a bit fragile due to China’s biotechnology regulatory regime."
She says China’s regulatory approval process is not synchronized with the rest of the world, and many products that have received scientific approval in China are stalled in the final approval phase.
"To get a product approved in China it already has to be approved in the United States and another major trading partner. That obviously causes delays in being able to ship approved U.S. products to the Chinese market. But unfortunately even on top of that asynchrony, at best China’s approval process is now taking four years to complete."
"Buyers in China want to purchase high quality U.S. biotech crop. They’ve shown that year after year with increasing purchases. So we want to make sure that the U.S. government and the Chinese government are all on the same page to make sure all of that good quality crop that is so bountiful this year can find a home in different export markets including China."
Source: American Farm Bureau Federation