Posted February 17, 2015
Syngenta
AG may file counterclaims against some of the 750 plus U.S. grain farmers and
exporters who have sued them over sales of biotech corn seed that disrupted
trading with China last year, according to an Ag Professional article available
here.
STL Today also published an article available here
and Reuters here.
Syngenta,
the world's largest crop chemicals company, is “assessing the scope for potential
counterclaims” in response to lawsuits over Agrisure Viptera corn, also known
as MIR 162.
Last year,
global grain handlers Cargill Inc. and Archer Daniels Midland Co., along with
hundreds of farmers, sued Syngenta for damages from China rejecting shipments
of U.S. crops that contained Viptera corn, according to STL
Today.
At the
time, the trait was approved for planting in the United States, but it was not
approved for import by China, a major corn buyer.
As of Jan.
28, 762 lawsuits had been filed, according to Syngenta’s SEC filing on
Thursday, and the company claims the suits are without merit.
Syngenta
counterclaiming is "a lot of puffery," said lawyer Paul Hanly of
Simmons Hanly Conroy, which is representing clients suing the seed maker,
according to Reuters.
“I'm
really hard-pressed to see what the theory would be, other than some sort of
disparagement claim,” he said, adding that he believes a disparagement
counterclaim would be baseless.
Lawsuits
against Syngenta have been consolidated in Syngenta AG MIR162 Corn Litigation,
U.S. District Court, District of Kansas, No 14-md-02591. (Reporting by Tom
Polansek; Editing by Paul Simao)
For more information on biotechnology, please visit the
National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
