The American Soybean Association joined other members of the U.S. Biotech Crops Alliance (USBCA) in a letter this week urging President Barack Obama to make U.S. market access and the Chinese biotechnology policy a top priority at the upcoming 2014 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit, hosted by the Government of the People’s Republic of China.

“The Chinese market for U.S. grains and oilseeds is incredibly important to the viability of the U.S. agricultural economy. China is the largest U.S. export market for soybeans, $14 billion in 2013 and corn and corn product exports were roughly $3.5 billion. Agricultural biotechnology is also important to U.S. farmers, with acreage for biotechnology varieties of corn and soybeans totaling over 90 percent in 2014; enabling U.S. farmers to increase yield while reducing their environmental footprint,” the groups stated, “However, the U.S. agricultural crop value-chain currently faces serious challenges in providing for predictable and stable trade to China due to the inability to secure timely import approvals for new biotechnology products and a growing concern that factors other than science are being used as justification to reject applications. In some instances, this has created a situation where U.S. exports of agricultural crop commodities have ceased or are in jeopardy of being rejected.”