Canada has joined Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Jordan, Paraguay, the United States, Uruguay, Vietnam, and the Secretariat of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in supporting the International Statement on Agricultural Applications of Precision Biotechnology.

"We are committed to supporting agricultural innovation, here in Canada and abroad, recognizing its essential role in growing prosperous economies," said Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Lawrence MacAulay. "Today, we are sending a strong message that we stand ready to work with our global partners in support of transparent, predictable and science-based regulatory approaches to reduce potential trade disruptions and allow for the commercialization of precision biotechnology products."

In 2017, 67 countries adopted agricultural biotechnology crops. The same year, 189.8 million hectares of agricultural biotechnology crops were planted by up to 17 million farmers.

"Canada has a long and distinguished history as a global leader in developing and supporting a rules-based international trading order," said Minister of International Trade Diversification Jim Carr. "We will continue to work cooperatively with other governments to minimize unnecessary barriers to trade, including those related to the regulatory oversight of products of precision biotechnology."

The major agricultural biotechnology crops currently grown globally are soybeans, maize, cotton, and canola.

Canada ranks fifth in the world in terms of area cultivated with agricultural biotechnology crop varieties, behind the United States, Brazil, Argentina and India.