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)