Seed company Syngenta wants the U.S. appeals court in Denver to intervene in a class-action lawsuit, prompted by China’s rejection of cargoes that included a GMO variety not approved for import. In court documents, Syngenta says the lawsuit asks for more than $5 billion in damages “on novel and dubious theories that Chinese rules on genetically modified traits for corn seeds should have dictated defendants’ practices in the United States,” says DTN.
The seed company is challenging a U.S. district court ruling that says all farmers who priced corn for sale after Nov. 13, 2013, are included in the lawsuit. Syngenta had U.S. approval for sale of its genetically engineered MIR 162 seed in 2011, but China moved slowly on its review of the variety. In November 2013, it began to turn back shipments that contained the corn, prompting a lawsuit by farmers who said they lost money because of the cancelled export sales.
In its appeal, Syngenta says the district judge included farmers who were not harmed by the trade dispute, said DTN. The appeal does not include farmers who bought the Syngenta strains.