The General Office of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment ("MEE") has recently issued the Guidelines for the Assessment of Environmental Release Risks of Transgenic Plants (Draft for Comment) (the "Draft for Comment") and the Technical Guidelines for the Assessment of Impacts of Insect-resistant Transgenic Plants on Biodiversity (Draft for Comment) to seek comments from the units concerned by March 15, 2019.
The Draft for Comment discusses the "applicable scope", "reference specifications", "terms and definitions", "basic principles of risk assessment", "assessment procedures", etc. Among others, the Draft for Comment clearly reads that, risk assessment conducted for transgenic plants shall follow the principle of assessment on a case-by-case basis, which requires that specific work of risk assessment and monitoring activities shall be determined according to the category of the transgenic plants concerned, transgenic characteristics and expected goals. Moreover, the Draft for Comment sets forth what to be looked at in the assessment of environmental release risks for transgenic plants, including the aspects to be assessed in each step, ranging from risk identification, risk assessment, conclusions of risk assessment, preparation of risk management strategies, to risk monitoring proposals.