China will extend the period of the tentative regulations on imported genetically modified (GM) agro-products from September 20 to April 20 next year, an official from the Ministry of Agriculture told Xinhua Monday.
Overseas companies, according to the tentative regulations, are still required to apply to the related Chinese government departments for a license to export their GM agro-products during the extended period, said the official.
GM plants, animals, poultry and microbes and their products as well as seed strains, fertilizers and pesticides with GM organisms, have to be identified on their packaging, and it is also demanded by the tentative regulations first issued in January 2002 and prolonged last October.
(Xinhua News Agency June 3, 2003)
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