China has welcomed a Japanese decision yesterday to partially lift its import ban on Chinese chicken, turkey meat and fowl eggs.

The Japanese move "is conducive to the resumption and development of the poultry trade between the two countries, which has been suspended for two months," said Gao Yan, spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation.

The Japanese import ban, based solely on a test result from the Republic of Korea, has led to tremendous losses for the Chinese poultry industry, she said.

Gao expressed the hope that Japanese government agencies concerned will, in the spirit of maintaining overall trade relations between the two countries, strengthen co-operation with their Chinese counterparts for the complete settlement of other remaining issues relating to the poultry trade.

She reiterated that facts have shown that the Chinese Government has established an effective prevention and quarantine mechanism against bird flu, and that no bird flu epidemics posing a high health hazard have been found in China.

Japan has decided to lift curbs on the import of Chinese chicken meat and turkeys while keeping a ban on other poultry products, the Japanese embassy in Beijing said on Tuesday.

The decision to lift the ban on chicken meat and turkeys as well as eggs was made after an investigation showed the products would entail "an extremely small" risk of importing epidemic diseases into Japan, the embassy said in a statement.

Other kinds of poultry such as goose and duck meat are still considered "not safe enough", and Japan will maintain its ban while talking to the Chinese about finding a solution, the statement said.

Japan imposed its ban on imports of Chinese poultry products on June 8 after "chicken flu" was found in Chinese ducks in South Korea.

The decision to lift part of the curbs is a tiny bright spot in a bilateral trade relationship that has been strained by tit-for-tat trade restrictions since early this year.

In late April, Japan slapped emergency tariffs on spring onions, fresh mushrooms and tatami rushes, a move aimed mainly at China which is the top exporter of these products to the Japanese market.

Beijing in June imposed 100 percent extra tariffs on automobiles, mobile telephones and air conditioners made in Japan.

Japan annually imports 240,000 tonnes of poultry from China compared with 130,000 tonnes from Thailand and 90,000 tonnes from the United States.

Japan is China's largest trading partner, with bilateral trade in the first half of 2001 amounting to US$42.4 billion, according to Chinese figures.

China's trade surplus with Japan was US$380 million in the January-June period.

(CIIC via Xinhua 08/08/2001)