美国农业部长汤姆•维尔萨克(Tom Vilsack)对中国化工(ChemChina)以440亿美元收购瑞士种子与化工集团先正达(Syngenta)的交易表示关切，称自己担心这笔交易可能会影响中国政府对美国产转基因生物的审批、以及全球粮食安全。
The US’s top agriculture official has raised concerns over a $44bn Chinese bid for Swiss seeds and chemicals group Syngenta, saying he is worried about the impact it may have on how Beijing approves US-made genetically modified organisms and on global food security.
由于先正达在美国的种子和化肥市场占有很大份额，因此这笔交易正受到华盛顿方面的密切关注，并且需要自愿接受国家安全方面的审查。
Because of Syngenta’s large presence in the US market for seeds and fertiliser it is also being scrutinised heavily by Washington and subjected to a voluntary national security review.
美国总统巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)及其政府迄今对这笔交易保持沉默。但周二维尔萨克在与记者们的电话会议上表示，他对这笔交易及其对美国逐鹿中国市场产生的影响感到担忧。
President Barack Obama and his administration have so far stayed quiet on the transaction. But in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, Tom Vilsack, the US agriculture secretary, said he had concerns about the deal and its impact on US competition for the Chinese market.
他说：“我密切注视着这一切，并将继续高度关注中国的审批制度对生物技术和创新的态度和阻碍，这套制度往往不是以科学为基础，而似乎更多地是基于政治。”
“I have a watchful eye on all of this and continue to be extremely concerned about the way in which biotechnology and innovation is being treated and impeded by a system in China that is often times not based on science and appears to be more based on politics,” he said.
维尔萨克称，他的讲话并不代表奥巴马政府。在回答一个关于先正达这笔交易的提问时，他表示：“我将只会提出我自己的关切……更多地是基于我与中国人在生物技术监管问题上打交道的经验发表看法。”
Mr Vilsack said he was not speaking on behalf of the Obama administration. “I will just simply raise concerns that I have . . . speaking more from my vantage point of having dealt with the Chinese on biotechnology regulatory issues,” he said in a response to a question about the Syngenta deal.
由于他提到了中国监管程序对创新的抑制性影响，这个问题在他的描绘下已超越了美中关系范畴，变成了一个需要提高农业生产力、“以满足当今世界不断增长的粮食需求”的问题。
Because of what he said was the dampening impact on innovation of China’s regulatory process he characterised the issue as one that went beyond the US-China relationship and to the issue of the need for greater farm productivity “to meet the growing food demand that exists in the world today”.
他说：“美国必须拥有这样的能力，即确保其创新经适当调研和审查后能获准进入某个市场，而不因政治原因受到不必要和不合理的阻碍。相关程序需要基于科学和规则。美国一直坚持这一态度。”
“America must have the ability to have its innovation get in to a marketplace after appropriate study and review without unnecessary and unreasonable barriers as a result of politics,” he said. “It needs to be science based and it needs to be rules based. America has been very consistent in that approach.”
美国农业官员并不代表美国外国投资委员会(CFIUS)，而且该委员会以往从未以粮食安全为由阻止过交易。但眼下，中国对美投资正受到越来越大的政治关注，近期已有数笔交易因CFIUS的关切而告吹。
US agriculture officials are not represented on CFIUS and the committee has never in the past blocked a deal on food security grounds. But the deal comes at a time of rising political concerns about Chinese inbound investment and the collapse of a number of recent deals due to CFIUS concerns.