Brussels, Oct 19 - The European Commission said on Thursday it would ask EU food safety experts next week to impose compulsory tests on all U.S. long-grain rice imports to prove the absence of a biotech strain not authorised in Europe.
"The European Commission will table a decision imposing mandatory counter testing for unauthorised GMOs in all imports of U.S. long-grain rice, at the Standing Committee on the Food Chain next Monday," it said in a statement.
If the experts agree to the Commission's proposal, the tests would be carried out on cargoes arriving at EU ports at the expense of the exporter.
No biotech rice is allowed to be grown, sold or marketed in the European Union's 25 countries.
Earlier this month, the Commission set a 15-day period for negotiating a common sampling protocol with U.S. authorities to detect the GMO rice strain, which has turned up in the food chains of at least nine EU countries in the last two months.
In August, the Commission tightened rules governing imports of U.S. long-grain rice to prove the absence of the LL Rice 601 strain, which it said was marketed by Germany's Bayer AG and produced in the United States.