India’s non­ GMO certification norm: US protests citing GM mustard

India’s non­ GMO certification norm: US protests citing GM mustard

Subject: Economy

Section: External Sector

Context: US has once again raised the issue of India’s order requiring a “non-GM origin and GM-free certificate” for 24 commodities imported for human consumption

Key Points:

• The US is protesting against the requirement of “non-GMO origin and GM-free certificate” from exporters on the one hand, while allowing environmental release of GM mustard, in addition to routine cultivation of GM cotton by Indian farmers, on the other.
• Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) from 2021 requires a mandatory “non-GMO and GM-free status certificate” from exporting countries for 24 listed  food products. The items include pineapples, apples, wheat, rice, tomato, potato, maize, melon, plum, papaya, potato, egg plant, bean, among others.
• The issue was raised by the USA at the recent Sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS) Committee meeting of the WTO in Geneva, US also complained that India has still not shared the requested scientific justification of its GMO stance.
• United States holds that the GM-free certificate requirement is not consistent with the WTO SPS Agreement.

Status of GM Mustard:

• The environmental release of GM mustard hybrid DMH-11 and its parental lines was approved in India by the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) on October 18, 2022, for its seed production and testing prior to commercial release,
• The matter remains under adjudication before the Supreme Court of India following complaints around bio-safety protocols filed by some green groups.

Status of GM Cotton:

• Transgenic cotton is the only GM crop which has been approved and is currently being cultivated in farmer’s fields in India.
• GM cotton seed was developed by Hyderabad-based Bioseed Research India and contains a gene, cry2Ai, that purportedly makes cotton resistant to pink bollworm, a major pest. The seed has passed preliminary, confined trials and was recommended by the GEAC to be tested in farmer’s fields.
• Under the current rules, transgenic seeds must be tested in open fields before they can hope to be cleared by the GEAC for commercial development.
• Agriculture being a State subject means that, in most cases, companies interested in testing their seeds need approvals from the States for conducting such tests. Of the four States that Bioseed applied to, only Haryana gave permission for such tests.

FSSAI Certification:

• From 01st March 2021, India’s food regulator FSSAI requires some of the major food crops to be accompanied with the “non-GM cum GM free certificate”. 
• Through this certificate, exporters will need to declare that the imported food crops are of non-GM origin, does not contain genetically modified organism and is also not genetically modified.
• The food safety authority also stated that the tolerance limit for “adventitious presence” of GMOs at one percent will be permissible in these imported food crops consignments. The term adventitious presence refers to unintentional or incidental presence of trace amounts of GM material in non-GM crops.