July 21, 2004
China Not Accepting Any Fungicide-Tainted Soybeans
China reiterated its zero-tolerance rule for fungicide-tainted seeds in any soybean imports, reported the semi-official 21st Century Economic News Tuesday.
Despite recent market speculation that the world's largest importer has succumbed to pressure to accept soybean cargos with no more than one such seed per kilogram, following a high-profile trade dispute over the rejection of five Panamax-sized cargoes from April to June, officials at China's quarantine authority said they never agreed to such a compromise, the report said.
"We have never said we are going to allow one fungicide-tainted seed per kilo in soybean imports," an unnamed official at China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, or AQSIQ, told the newspaper.
What the Brazilian side proposed, and what the AQSIQ finally agreed to, is accepting one soybean per kilogram tainted with an unknown poison, the official said. But a fungicide is not an unknown poison, he added.
The latest row and the subsequent Sino-Brazil bilateral talks arose after China adopted a zero-tolerance policy on fungicide-tainted seeds in April, against the purported international practice of allowing up to three tainted seeds per kilogram of imported soybeans.
The official said the reported international practice is a misconception because "the U.S. allows only three foreign materials included per kilo in imports of ungraded soybeans" instead of allowing "three fungicide-tainted seeds per kilo".
Moreover, he said, China had bought No. 2 soybeans, which carry a higher price tag than ungraded soybeans and should therefore contain less foreign materials.
"No single country would allow fungicide-tainted seeds to be imported", he said, citing U.S. Federal Law which states that fungicide-tainted soybeans shouldn't be consumed by humans and animals or used for crushing purposes.
After many suppliers and importers complained that AQSIQ's new quarantine rules released June 23 are designed to help domestic crushers wash their hands off expensive imports, the government agency held a briefing for more than 50 importers last Tuesday in Beijing. Officials from the U.S. and Brazilian consulates also attended the briefing.
The AQSIQ officials explained the rules are aimed at shunning only poor-quality products while ensuring smooth soybean trade in the long run, according to the 21st Century Economic News.
Acknowledging the Brazilian government's recent efforts to improve the quality of its exports, China lifted the ban on 23 suppliers from selling Brazilian soybeans to China June 23, said the official.
China hasn't had any official notice on a report by Brazilian media that said the top three soybean producers - Brazil, the U.S. and Argentina - are considering bringing a law suit against China to the World Trade Organization over the soybean dispute, the official said.
The Brazilian consulate told 21st Century Economic News that the law suit is purely media speculation and the Brazilian government has no intention of entering a face off with China in the WTO court.