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 .
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)