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Japan plans tighter rules on GMO imports for feed
(Friday, Oct. 11, 2002 -- CropChoice news) --
Reuters: Japan, one of the world's biggest grain importers, is set to
tighten regulations on genetically modified organisms (GMO), with plans to
ban the import and sale of unapproved biotech crops for use in livestock
feed.
Currently Japan's Agriculture Ministry, responsible for ensuring the
safety of animal feed, asks GMO suppliers to voluntarily undergo its safety
assessments.
But faced with criticism that lax regulations have led to the use of
unapproved GM ingredients in feed, the ministry plans to make the
assessment mandatory next April under the feed safety law.
Under the new regulations, the ministry will test samples from grain
cargoes at its laboratories nationwide to weed out unapproved GM varieties.
"We will order importers to destroy or return cargoes to originating
countries (if we discover) unapproved GMOs," a ministry official said.
The Agriculture Ministry's move follows similar steps taken last year by
Japan's Health Ministry, the food safety authority, which has banned
imports of foods containing unapproved GMOs.
But unlike the Health Ministry, which has adopted a zero tolerance policy
on imports of unapproved GMOs, the Agriculture Ministry is considering
allowing up to one percent of unapproved GMOs in feed grains, recognising
that accidental contamination of grains can occur in production or
distribution.
The one-percent rule will only be applied, however, to unapproved GMO
varieties whose safety has already been confirmed by the originating
country under testing standards set by the Paris-based Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the ministry official said.
Genetically modified crops contain a gene from another organism, making
plants resistant to certain herbicides or giving them the ability to
produce their own toxin to kill pests. Critics say not enough research has
been done to ensure the new technology is safe for the environment and
public health.
Japan started importing GM crops in 1996 as farmers in the United States
began adopting the technology.
So far the Agriculture Ministry has approved 32 GM varieties of five crops
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corn, soybeans, rapeseed, cotton and sugar beet - for import and sale
under its feed safety guidelines.
TRADE IMPACT SEEN LIMITED Japanese traders do not expect the new GMO
regulations will have a major impact on their grain imports from the United
States, the world's biggest producer of GM crops.
They said the U.S. grain industry voluntarily restrained production of GM
varieties lacking approval from Japan, their biggest export market, after
the discovery of banned StarLink biotech corn in food and animal feed
sparked massive product recalls in Japan two years ago.
At that time StarLink - GM corn made by Franco-German pharmaceutical group
Aventis SA - was approved for animal feed but not for human consumption in
the United States. In Japan it was not approved even for feed.
The Starlink discovery prompted Japan to cut purchases of U.S. corn
sharply, with importers scrambling to find other supply sources. Japanese
traders resumed buying U.S. corn after U.S. farmers were banned from
planting StarLink corn.
"After learning bitter lessons from the StarLink issue, the U.S. grain
industry has imposed self-restraint on planting of GM varieties until they
are approved in Japan," one trader said.
In the latest case, the U.S. grain industry earlier this year halted plans
to grow GM corn made by Dow AgroSciences, a subsidiary of U.S. chemical
firm Dow Chemical Co, because the Japanese government had not approved the
variety.
An official at Dow Chemical's Japanese unit said U.S. farmers would start
growing the GM corn next year, because Japan approved the variety for feed
use in May and for food use in June.
Japan imports roughly 16 million tonnes of corn annually, of which 12
million tonnes are for feed and the rest are for food and other uses. The
United States is the dominant supplier, representing more than 90 percent
of Japan's total corn imports. | |
