6-Regulations: Japan plans tighter rules on GMO imports for feed

[GENET <hmeyer@ngi.de>]

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TITLE:  Japan plans tighter rules on GMO imports for feed
SOURCE: Reuters, by Aya Takada
DATE:   Oct 11, 2002

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Japan plans tighter rules on GMO imports for feed

TOKYO - 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 -
 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.



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