Comparison And Reference Of Chinese And American Seed Law And Regulation

The development of China’s seed industry not only requires science and technology input, but also legal protection. The enforcement of the "Seed Law of People’s Republic of China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Seed Law") promotes the development of China’s seed industry, but compared with the seed industry of developed countries such as America, there is a big gap. Therefore, learning the successful experience of the development of seed industry of the United States, a comparative study is conducted the seeds in the legal system of China and the United States. It is of great significance for standardizing the order of China’s seed industry market, perfecting China’s seed laws and regulations and promoting the development of China’s seed industry.The research method in the paper mainly includes literature reading method, comparative research and case analysis method, analyzes the differences of seed law of China and the United States, conducts comparative study on the law of current situation and existing problems of China and the United States federal seed law. The main achievements are as follows:1. China adapted variety certification system; the main crop varieties require certification before the application in the production hosted by administrative department of seeds represented China. Therefore, as long as the germination rate, purity and water content of the seed reaches the standard, when facing the other problems such as poor fructification, reduction of output, plant diseases and insect pests, farmers can only buying this stock, or the government bear such responsibility; the seed certification is so excessive and complex that farmers feel disoriented and seeds have short service life. The United States adopts variety registration system; seed enterprises decide the popularization and application of seeds; the seed quality problem is fully borne by the enterprises themselves, the varieties in production and application are fewer but better, with longer service life. Besides, such registration system is conducive to improve the quality consciousness of seed enterprises, enhance their sense of responsibility, so seed enterprises are quite careful when they introduce varieties.2. The breeding research strength in China is mainly concentrated in the universities and public research institutes; seed enterprises have weaker scientific research strength; their variety breeding, seed production, and seed sales are completely disconnected, resulting in lower breeding efficiency, insufficient protection of new varieties and frequent sham tort phenomenon. America’s commercial breeding is dominated by seed companies and private institutions; variety breeding and seed production and seed sales are closely related, with high breeding efficiency and greater protection of new varieties. In addition to the "The Federal Seed Act" and the seed law of various states, "Patent Law", "Copyright Law", "Trademark Law" and other traditional intellectual property law play good roles in the protection for new varieties.3. Currently, in term of seed management pattern, China adopts pre-event management mode that is suitable for the planned economic system and market economic system dominated by the government. On the value orientation, China pays more attention to the administrative licensing of the government; the government decides the varieties that are to be introduced into the market and doesn’t pay attention to the demand of the market, making too many varieties enter the market, disrupting the order of seed market; at the same time, the relevant law-enforcing departments don’t have enough law enforcement, which also seriously affects the efficiency of law enforcement. The United States adopts post-mortem regulatory mode; on value orientation, it pays more attention to whether enterprises’control, variety registration and seed quality certification system are voluntary; varieties are mainly chosen by the market; all the varieties entering the market are guaranteed good varieties. The enforcement methods of the related laws including "The Federal Seed Act" are also very powerful and have greater penalties, which also virtually improve the standard of the entire industry.In April 2015, during the study period, the 12th session of the 14th meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress initially reviewed "Seed Law of the People’s Republic of China (Revised Draft)" and conducted the third revision on China’s "Seed Law", the contents of the newly revised "Seed Law" that have more influence on the development of seed industry are embodied in the following aspects:it reduced the crop varieties that need review and approval from 28 to 5; it reformed the scientific research innovation mechanism of seed industry; public research was out of commercialized breeding; breeding returned to its fundamentality and public welfare; seed companies can decide the generation of varieties and truly implement the integration of "breeding, planting, generation"; it stressed that administrative law enforcement should be enhanced; the protection of new plant varieties should become most important one link of enhancing the overall innovation of the industry. It can be seen that the revision direction of the "Seed Law" is consistent with the research direction of the paper and it indirectly proves that the research of this paper is of practical significance. Although there are still some defects in crop variety determination and seed quality standards in the revision of the "Seed Law", with the further perfection of relevant laws and regulations of seeds, China’s variety certification system will gradually transit to the variety registration system. In the next few years, China’s seed industry will still experience exploring, reform and rapid development; so how to guide, regulate, promote and adapt to the development of seed industry more effectively will be an eternal issue.