New Delhi: China has rejected at least 70 consignments of Indian non-Basmati rice, alleging that the exports contain GM (Genetically Modified) crops. The rejection at Chinese ports comes even as the India office of the China Certification & Inspection Group (CCIC) is inspecting and approving shipments at its testing facility in Visakhapatnam, businessline reported. The falloutAt least four new consignments of rice were turned away by China in the last week alone, the report said. In March too China had rejected three rice consignments from India.Three Indian companies – Shriram Food Industry in Nagpur, Spone Enterprises in Raipur and NM Foodimpex in Haryana – have had their Chinese import licenses suspended. Across the industry, exporters have held back roughly 200 containers of rice as uncertainty mounts over what will and won’t pass muster in Beijing.It is worth noting that the rejections began shortly after India’s Agriculture Minister announced in January 2026 that India had overtaken China to become the world’s largest rice producer, as reported by Business UpTurn.India’s own position is categorical: the only genetically modified crop approved for commercial cultivation in India is Bt cotton. Underlining this, the Union Ministry of Environment formally confirmed in a memorandum on April 30 that the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) never approved any GM rice variety, with the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR).Trade warAnonymous sources cited by businessline said that the Chinese rejection of Indian non-GMO consignments “signals that they are indulging in a trade war with India”. “China is trying to spoil our image. It is known to do such things and has done this before,” an official told the paper on condition of anonymity. Traders are also concerned about the selective scrutiny. China is applying GMO scrutiny to Indian shipments but not to rice arriving from Thailand, Vietnam, Pakistan, or Myanmar, the National Herald reported. The move appears to be “strategic trade planning” by China, foreign trade expert S. Chandrasekaran told the National Herald.“This is the new frontier of trade war. You don’t need to raise taxes if you can simply claim the product is ‘unsafe’ under your domestic environmental laws. It’s a move that is very difficult to challenge in the short term,” an agricultural economist based in Singapore told Business Up Turn.As Indian rice grows more competitive on price and volume, it threatens the domestic price support systems China uses to protect its own farmers. By invoking GMO concerns, Beijing can effectively throttle India’s imports without violating WTO (World Trade Organisation) rules on quotas and tariffs, which are much harder to justify legally. Traders and analysts have broadly characterised the move as a trade war. This is not the first time China has used non-tariff barriers against India. India’s rice exports to China remained negligible until 2019-20 because of such barriers, only surging after restrictions were eased. The industry’s immediate need is a formal non-GMO declaration from ICAR, a document that could travel with every shipment and be harder for Beijing to dismiss.