China hopes Japan will "abide by the WTO rules" and "treat farm
products imported from China fairly" to safeguard the sound
development of their bilateral trade and economic ties, a Chinese
foreign trade official said in Beijing on Friday.
Jiang Fan from the Ministry of
Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) said at a press
briefing co-hosted by MOFTEC and three other relevant ministries
that Japan had stepped up inspection and quarantine on farm
products imported from China since the beginning of this year. The
practice, bearing strong marks of discrimination, was severely
impairing the healthy development of their trade.
Japan's practice had not only harmed the image of Chinese
agricultural products, misled Japanese consumers and severely
damaged China's exports to Japan, but undermined the interests of
relevant Japanese-funded enterprises in China and Japanese
consumers as well.
China since the beginning had negotiated with Japan over the issue,
the MOFTEC spokesperson had clearly stated China's stance, and
relevant departments had held with Japan several rounds of
technical talks, but none had altered Japan's discriminatory
practice, she said.
"We notice that Japan will enforce a new amendment to its food
hygiene law from Sept. 7. The Chinese side will watch closely all
the measures taken by Japan based on the amendment, and any
Japanese practice liable to impair trade with China," the official
said.
Qin Zhenkui from the State Administration of Quality Supervision
and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said the Chinese government gave high
priority to food safety and sanitation, forming the AQSIQ to ensure
safety of imported and exported food. Imported and exported
vegetables were also under strict supervision and quarantine
inspection.
He
said the so-called chlorpyrifos residue problem mainly arose from
Japan's unscientific and unreasonable chlorpyrifos restrictions.
The overall quality of China's vegetables was good, and exceptional
cases should never be taken as representative of all Chinese farm
products.
According to Zhang Yuxiang, a Ministry of Agriculture official, the
ministry conducted a thorough inspection of vegetable production
bases, and wholesale markets in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and
Shenzhen in April this year. The result showed that 97.7 percent of
the vegetable products passed the standards laid down by the Codex
Alimentarius Commission (CAC).
"Since vegetables in the above-mentioned four cities are supplied
by producers from all over China, the result indicates that
vegetable quality in the whole country is reliable," she said.
(People's
Daily September 7, 2002)