China, the world’s largest importer of soyabeans, has made a trade concession to Washington by approving imports of two new varieties of genetically modified crops developed by US companies.
Approved for import are Dow AgroSciences’ Enlist corn and Monsanto’s Vistive Gold soyabean, the Ministry of Agriculture announced on Wednesday. China has tight limits on the domestic cultivation of genetically modified crops, but allows imports to be used in its vast animal feed industry.
Beijing in May promised to speed up the evaluation of eight varieties of GM crops from the US as part of a “100-day plan” to open up trade launched in March by US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.