China and the European Union agreed yesterday in Brussels to set up
a joint study group aimed at lifting an EU food-safety ban on
certain Chinese imports and setting up an early-warning system to
avoid similar problems in the future.
Shi Guangsheng, China's minister of foreign trade and economic
cooperation, told a press conference in the Belgian capital: "The
Chinese side has always attached great importance to food
safety."
Speaking after talks with EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy, Shi
added that, as a result of the ban being put in place last week,
China "is now implementing a complete food-safety monitoring
system, along with the scientific and technological measures for
sanitation infractions."
Lamy said the talks on the ban were "clear, candid and
constructive... I repeated that I could not influence the decisions
of (health and consumer safety commissioner) David Byrne that he
takes... in the interests of public health."
Last Friday, the European Commission - on Byrne's recommendation -
slapped a ban on imports of Chinese poultry, rabbit meat, honey,
molluscs, crustaceans such as frozen shrimps and prawns, and pet
food. The ban followed an expert report, which said such products
could be contaminated with the banned antibiotic
chloramphenicol.
The report was based on an EU expert mission to China last
November. The ban, which took effect on Monday, drew an angry
response from the Chinese Government, which called it
"unacceptable" and warned it could seriously affect bilateral
trade.
Shi said,"In the opinion of the Chinese side, this report is not
accurate and does not draw the whole picture. It was produced
without consultation with the Chinese experts and, therefore, we
cannot accept this decision." He added the report had been
"submitted to the Chinese side on January 23 and, before we could
respond, on January 25 the EU made the (ban) decision."
Lamy conceded "the report was followed up very quickly by
measures." But he added the report was "a follow-up to previous
contacts which did not bear the fruit we had expected." He said,"I
think that we're now clear on both sides what we think on this and
the important thing is that, in the future, we have to have
early-warning systems."
There was no talk of when or under what conditions the ban would be
lifted. Shi did not respond when asked if China would take
counter-measures in the form of sanctions.
The Shi-Lamy talks were part of the 17th EU-China Joint Committee
meeting, the first since China joined the World Trade Organization
last year.
(China
Daily February 1, 2002)