A ruling by New Zealand's Environmental Protection Authority that would have allowed new GM products developed by "genome editing" techniques to escape GMO regulation has been quashed in the High Court. This is an important precedent-setting case, won by the New Zealand Sustainability Council.

The broadcast at the link below is highly critical of New Zealand's Environmental Protection Authority for misinterpreting the law.
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Decision over GM crops quashed
Radio New Zealand, 22 May 2014
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/245089/decision-over-gm-crops-quashed
[audio report at link above]

A decision by the Environmental Protection Authority to allow the development of genetically modified crops has been quashed by the High Court.

In 2012 the Crown Research Institute Scion, went to the authority to find out whether it could use two new breeding techniques to grow pine trees.

The authority ruled they were not genetically modified and allowed them to be exempt from the law which restricts genetically modified crops in New Zealand.

But the High Court found it had misinterpreted the law.

The Sustainability Council said the error could have allowed the organisms to be used in food production, putting New Zealand's reputation of a non-GM food producer at risk especially in anti-GM markets in Europe.