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E-U Biotech Move Worries Canadian Soybean Industry

The group representing Canada's soybean industry is not very happy with the European Commission.

The Commission has decided to change the way it's member states in the European Union deal with food and feed derived from biotechnology.

The current system has the European Food Safety Authority do a safety assessment on those products.

Once the EFSA approves a product, all the EU states have to abide by that ruling.

However, the Commission is proposing that while the EFSA will continue to assess those products, individual member states would be allowed to ignore the results and prohibit imports.

Soy Canada Chair Mark Huston says that's going to create uncertainty and disrupt trade for EU customers.

Soy Canada also argues it's a major step away from the trade environment Canada and the European Union have agreed to through the Canada-EU Free Trade Agreement.

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