Enabling Trade in Gene-Edited Produce in Asia and Australasia: The Developing Regulatory Landscape and Future Perspectives

Gene-editing technology provides an exciting new set of tools for crop improvement Knowledge of national and international regulations is needed for growers to exploit the technology The current status of the gene-editing regulatory landscape in Asia-Pacific countries is presented.
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Genome- or gene-editing (abbreviated here as ‘GEd’) presents great opportunities for crop improvement. This is especially so for the countries in the Asia-Pacific region, which is home to more than half of the world’s growing population. A brief description of the science of gene-editing is provided with examples of GEd products. For the benefits of GEd technologies to be realized, international policy and regulatory environments must be clarified, otherwise non-tariff trade barriers will result. The status of regulations that relate to GEd crop products in Asian countries and Australasia are described, together with relevant definitions and responsible regulatory bodies.

The regulatory landscape is changing rapidly: in some countries, the regulations are clear, in others
they are developing, and some countries have yet to develop appropriate policies. There is clearly a need for the harmonization or alignment of GEd regulations in the region: this will promote the path-to-market and enable the benefits of GEd technologies to reach the end-users.

An overview of the current regulatory status of Asia-Pacific countries is shown in the Figure below.

The regulatory status of  of GEd crops in countries in the Asia-Pacific region. It is based on the deregulation of SDN-1 crops (green), with some countries also deregulating SDN-1 and SDN-2
products, as described in the text. Countries with ongoing discussions (yellow) and regulated as
GMOs (red). Note that regulation of GEd crops in China is under discussion, but does not use SDN
terminology: at present GEd is still under GMO product safety management measures, but with less
onerous requirements in the pathway to commercial approval.

The good news for advancing GEd technology is that the overall trend is clearly toward either exemption for some types of GEd products or toward fewer regulatory requirements compared to the GM products.

For more information, see: Enabling Trade in Gene-Edited Produce in Asia and Australasia:
The Developing Regulatory Landscape and Future Perspectives:
Jones, M.G.K.; Fosu-Nyarko, J.; Iqbal, S.; Adeel, M.; Romero-Aldemita, R.; Arujanan, M.; Kasai, M.;Wei, X.; Prasetya, B.; Nugroho, S.; et al. Enabling Trade in Gene-Edited Produce in Asia and Australasia: The Developing Regulatory Landscape and Future Perspectives. Plants 2022, 11, 2538. https://doi.org/

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Biotechnology
Life Sciences > Biological Sciences > Biotechnology