新的USDA Biotech规则'基本上有缺陷的'AG组说

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) new proposed rule for regulating plant-based agricultural biotechnology products, as drafted, is “fundamentally flawed” and could contribute to future trade disruptions, the National Grain and Feed Association (NGFA) and several other grain- and oilseed-based agribusiness associations said in a joint statement submitted on Aug. 6.

“我们的行业，我们的农民 - 客户有着重点需要避免经常与转基因生物技术相关的昂贵的贸易中断，”编写NGFA，玉米炼油厂协会，国家油脂处理器协会，北美出口粮食协会和北美米勒协会。“如果美国政府对基因组编辑和其他植物育种创新的监管方法与国内食品工业或美国的重要出口市场走不一致，它将对粮食和石油价值链，包括美国农民的粮食价值链岌岌可危。”

这些团体强调，他们强烈支持使用生物技术和植物育种创新，包括基因组编辑，以便在为美国和全球消费者提供丰富，实惠和环保的食品，饲料和能源供应方面的作用。

但这些团体还强调，“美国农业竞争力的基石”是其能够有效地和成本有效地推动美国的农业丰富。

“这是通过这种双重镜头 - 支持技术创新，同时确保其使用的作物的持续高效的销售性” - 五个组织表示需要观看APHIS的拟议规则。

Under the proposed rule published on June 6, USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) – which has authority to determine whether agricultural biotech traits pose a plant pest or noxious weed risk to the environment – would exempt most crops developed with gene-editing techniques from regulatory oversight. APHIS’s proposed rule states that such plants can be developed through traditional breeding techniques, making them unlikely to pose a greater plant pest risk than conventionally bred crops.

APHIS提案也会赋予作物开发商的“自决”，使其植物免于APHIS监管监督，而不为原子能机构提供任何通知。在拟议的规则下，技术提供者将有“选项”，以请求来自APHIS的书面确认，因为他们的自我决定是有效的。

农业综合企业组织表示，这种广泛的自决方法“破坏了消费者接受和国际监管监管的国际监管承认”的风险。

The organizations urged APHIS to amend its proposed rule to require all technology providers to notify the agency in advance before introducing gene-edited or other plant breeding innovation traits for commercialization – even those within APHIS’s expressly exempted categories – to provide needed transparency to the market and to consumers. Doing so would enable the agency to issue an official attestation that the trait does not pose a plant pest risk, “thereby providing an important tool to efficiently market U.S. agricultural products.”

该陈述还重申了NGFA的长期信念，以便在APHIS与最终规则进行之前，应避免潜在贸易中断的前提是一个先决条件。

Further, the groups said it would be ill-advised for APHIS to proceed with regulatory changes until its fellow federal agencies that operate under the U.S. “Coordinated Framework for Regulation of Biotechnology” – the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency – issue rules or guidance on how they plan to address their respective oversight of genome editing and other plant breeding innovation technologies.

“我们的成员支持使用农业生物技术和植物育种创新，”组织结束。“但是，对于我们组织的成员公司以及他们服务的农民和下游客户，在没有遇到经常性贸易中断的情况下，有效和经济有效地营销美国的农业丰富的重要性至关重要。我们可以“建立它”，但如果美国和全球消费者的“不来”（即“，”不购买“），这项宝贵技术的接受可能会受到危害并破坏不可撤销的。”