July 19, 2007

China and US to discuss seafood ban and collaborate on food safety

China and the US will hold five days of talks in Beijing this month over Chinese seafood exports banned over antibiotic residue contents, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

China has been complaining about the ban the US has imposed on five types of Chinese seafood in the wake of a pet food incident in which tainted raw ingredients from China was believed to have caused the deaths of dozens of pets in the US.

The US seafood ban was imposed after FDA officials found certain banned veterinary drugs and food additives in Chinese farm-raised catfish, basa, shrimp, dace and eel.

The seafood were not allowed into the US until it could be proven independently that it did not contain banned antibiotics.

The talk would last for five days from July 31, Xinhua quoted Li Yuanping, an official with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), as saying.

The two sides would also discuss the setting up of a collaboration mechanism on food safety.

China has hit back at the negative publicity it received from US complaints of shoddy products by banning meat products from some of the biggest US companies such as Tyson and Cargill. It cited the presence of salmonella and antibiotics in pork ribs and chicken feet it imported from the companies.

World Health Organisation officials said in Geneva on Tuesday that China should not be singled out for particular concern over food safety. It added that both rich and poor countries should tackle the problem through better regulation.