Swiss-based seed firm Syngenta had applied for cultivation approval for its Viptera GMO corn in China, but later halted the process to focus on winning import permission for the grain, a company spokesman told Reuters. Syngenta is being sued by grain exporters Cargill and Trans Coastal Supply Co for failing to gain import approval for the GMO corn, also known as MIR162, in China before selling the seed to farmers in the United States. The two companies claim they suffered from combined damages of more than $130 million after China began rejecting cargoes of U.S. corn containing the trait last year. China is the world's second largest corn consumer. Syngenta has said the exporters' lawsuits are without merit. Cargill has alleged that Syngenta's application for cultivation approval as well as import approval may have subjected Viptera to more intensive regulatory scrutiny and a lengthier approval process by the Chinese government. "Syngenta followed common industry practice and initially applied for cultivation approval of MIR162 in China. However, we later stopped this work to focus solely on the import application," Syngenta spokesman Paul Minehart said in an email. Syngenta applied for Chinese approval to import the corn product in 2010. The application for approval to grow the seed in China came even though the country had never allowed for the cultivation of genetically modified variants of staple food crops. An industry source who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter said that at the time Syngenta filed its dossier, cultivation applications were not uncommon as the industry expected Beijing to open up its market to more GMO crops. The climate has changed since then, with an increasingly fervent media debate around the purported risks of GMO food contributing to the government's reticence to expand sales of biotech crops. (Reuters)