Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 6854 I EUROPEAN SEED I EUROPEAN-SEED.COM REGULATORY KEEPING YOU INFORMED OF LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY CHANGES IN EUROPE AND ABROAD — FROM LAWSUITS TO APPROVALS TO OTHER REGULATORY ISSUES AFFECTING YOUR BUSINESS. NATIONAL EU APPROVES NEW BIOTECH TRAITS The European Union has approved three out- standing biotech soybean traits for import and processing. The approved traits include the Xtend dicamba-tolerant soybean and Vistive Gold high oleic soybean products from Monsanto, and the Balance GT FG72 soybean from Bayer Crop Science. The three soybean events had received positive scientific opinions from the European Food Safety Agency over a year ago, and had been waiting for final approval by the EU Commission since January. ROUNDUP READY 2 EXTEND SOYBEANS GET EU IMPORT APPROVAL The European Commission has granted import approval for Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans, according to Monsanto. This milestone allows for the import and food/feed use of Roundup Ready 2 Xtend soybeans into the European Union. The European Commission’s approval follows Monsanto’s February announcement of Chinese import approval. With both the EU and Chinese import approvals and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the final stages of review for over-the-top use, Monsanto looks to a full system launch in the United States in 2017. The company reports it is in a strong position to supply roughly 15 million U.S. soy acres when the selling season arrives. A full system launch also is planned for Canadian soybean growers in 2017. INTERNATIONAL SOUTH KOREA APPROVES NEW COTTON FOR FOOD USE South Korea recently approved Enlist cotton for food use. The South Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety ruling gives full feed and food import approval for cotton varieties containing the Enlist trait. The ruling allows use of cot- tonseed oil and products in the country’s food system. This means U.S. cotton growers can plant varieties containing the Enlist trait with confidence. Cotton grown using this technology now has full export approval in key countries, according to Dow AgroSciences, which devel- oped the new weed control system. John Chase, Dow AgroSciences Enlist commercial leader, says the Enlist weed control system takes weed control to the next level by building on the Roundup Ready system. CHINESE DELEGATION SEEKS TO IMPROVE REGULATORY APPROVAL PROCESS The U.S. National Corn Growers Association met with officials from China’s Ministry of Agriculture to discuss the need to improve the synchronization process of the regulatory sys- tems and the importance U.S. farmers place on the availability of new technologies. Paul Bertels, NCGA vice president of production and stewardship, and Nathan Fields, director of bio- technology and crop inputs, participated in the discussion. In addition to learning more about the regulatory system as a whole, the group is looking at how data is generated to support these processes. OBAMA SIGNS GMO LABELLING BILL President Barack Obama has signed into law a landmark agreement that protects America’s food supply system from a harmful patchwork of varying state labelling laws for foods made with genetically modified, or GMO, ingredients. The historic federal law will give consumers access to more product information than ever before and ensure a transparent national system for disclosing ingredients without stigmatizing a safe and proven technology. The agreement allows food companies to provide content infor- mation through the use of on-package symbols, on-package wording or electronic labels, such as quick response codes, that direct consumers to information online. GLOBALGAP TO ENSURE PRODUCE TRACEABILITY AND IP COMPLIANCE A new version of GlobalGAP, the world’s leading farm assurance program, came into effect on July 1 with two new crop-based control points that ensure produce traceability and compliance with Intellectual Property (IP) laws. Since 1999 GlobalGAP, an independent certification system for Good Agricultural Practice (GAP), has been translating consumer requirements into stand- ard for safe and sustainable food production, in a growing list of countries across the world. For the first time, the newly released GlobalGAP 5.0 includes two control points on registered varie- ties and compliance with IP rights on varieties. TANZANIA READY FOR BIOTECH CROPS The permanent secretary of Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Florens Turuka, has confirmed the country’s readiness to transact business on GM crops. Speaking at the launch of the ISAAA Global Report on Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops (2015), Turuka said the government intends to rev- olutionize agriculture in the African country by introducing biotech crops to improve the quality of yields. “We want to make sure that the quality of the yields that we are harvesting is improved. We believe this report we have launched will help us show the public on how other countries are benefiting from agri-biotech- nology,” he said.