China's GMO Ruling Hands U.S. Farmers New Tool in Battle Against Weeds

By Jacob Bunge

China's approval of new genetically engineered crops will open a new front in U.S. farmers' long-running war against hard-to-kill weeds.

The approval, outlined Tuesday by Chinese officials, clears the way for crop-seed and chemical maker DowDuPont Inc. to begin selling to U.S. farmers new soybean seeds modified to survive a powerful herbicide combination.

The seeds are designed for farmers struggling to stop weeds that have developed resistance to other sprays. Resistant weeds are spreading across the U.S. Farm Belt, cutting into farmers' harvests and boosting their spending on chemicals.

DowDuPont's soybeans, called Enlist, awaited China's approval for years. The U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2014 approved the seeds for sale to U.S. farmers, but DowDuPont held off on widely selling the seeds pending approval from China, the world's biggest buyer of soybeans.

Tuesday's decision came as U.S. and Chinese negotiators work on cooling a broader trade battle between the world's two largest economies. Trade officials representing the countries have narrowed their differences, though the two sides remain far from completing a deal.

The decision by China's National Biosafety Committee, which also approved herbicide-resistant crops developed by Bayer AG and Syngenta, followed a 2017 commitment by China to hasten reviews for U.S. biotech crops.

China's approval will help provide a new weapon against hard-to-kill weeds like waterhemp and palmer amaranth. Such weeds have developed resistance to glyphosate, the herbicide marketed by Bayer under the Roundup brand. The German company last year acquired Monsanto, which developed Roundup and pioneered genetically engineered crops.

Since 2016 Bayer has sold soybean seeds genetically engineered to resist dicamba, another potent herbicide pitched as a solution to farmers' herbicide-resistant weed woes. Some farmers have blamed dicamba for drifting onto neighboring fields and damaging crops, though Bayer said its new formulation of dicamba is designed to better hold where it is sprayed.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in October tightened restrictions on dicamba spraying, but allowed farmers to continue using it. Some farmers and pesticide applicators see DowDuPont's new soybeans as an alternative, since they are engineered to withstand 2,4-D, a different herbicide.

"We're ready to go if we got [China's] approval now," Jim Collins, who heads DowDuPont's agricultural business, said in November.

Chinese officials' approvals of the new genetically engineered crops make good on part of a trade pact between China and the U.S. reached in May 2017. Chinese officials at the time agreed to rule within 100 days on eight biotech crops. The country approved some, but held off on others like DowDuPont's soybeans, frustrating U.S. seed-industry officials who for years have complained that China's biotech crop approval process is opaque and unpredictable.

As part of Chinese officials' Tuesday ruling, Bayer won approval for a new variety of canola, which will help the company begin selling it to North American farmers this year, a spokeswoman said.

"While we welcome this news, many of these products were stuck in China's regulatory process for many years and others were not granted approvals, underscoring the need for continued improvement in China's regulatory processes," she said.

Write to Jacob Bunge at jacob.bunge@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 08, 2019 13:26 ET (18:26 GMT)

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