The Chinese government announced Monday that starting from November 12 it will resume importing pigs, cattle, sheep and meat products from the Republic of Korea.

According to a proclamation from the Ministry of Agriculture and State Bureau of Quality Supervision and Quarantine, the imports should be processed in the ROK after the proclamation was issued.

The ROK has carried out tough measures to exterminate foot-and-mouth disease, which broke out in the country on March 24, 2000, and successfully prevented new cases of the illness, said the proclamation.

After the emergence of foot-and-mouth disease in the ROK last year, the Chinese government banned imports of livestock and meat from the country.

(Xinhua News Agency November 13, 2001)