China hopes Japan will "abide by the WTO rules" and "treat farm products imported from China fairly" to safeguard the sound development of their bilateral trade and economic ties, a Chinese foreign trade official said in Beijing on Friday.

Jiang Fan from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) said at a press briefing co-hosted by MOFTEC and three other relevant ministries that Japan had stepped up inspection and quarantine on farm products imported from China since the beginning of this year. The practice, bearing strong marks of discrimination, was severely impairing the healthy development of their trade.

Japan's practice had not only harmed the image of Chinese agricultural products, misled Japanese consumers and severely damaged China's exports to Japan, but undermined the interests of relevant Japanese-funded enterprises in China and Japanese consumers as well.

China since the beginning had negotiated with Japan over the issue, the MOFTEC spokesperson had clearly stated China's stance, and relevant departments had held with Japan several rounds of technical talks, but none had altered Japan's discriminatory practice, she said.

"We notice that Japan will enforce a new amendment to its food hygiene law from Sept. 7. The Chinese side will watch closely all the measures taken by Japan based on the amendment, and any Japanese practice liable to impair trade with China," the official said.

Qin Zhenkui from the State Administration of Quality Supervision and Quarantine (AQSIQ) said the Chinese government gave high priority to food safety and sanitation, forming the AQSIQ to ensure safety of imported and exported food. Imported and exported vegetables were also under strict supervision and quarantine inspection.

He said the so-called chlorpyrifos residue problem mainly arose from Japan's unscientific and unreasonable chlorpyrifos restrictions. The overall quality of China's vegetables was good, and exceptional cases should never be taken as representative of all Chinese farm products.

According to Zhang Yuxiang, a Ministry of Agriculture official, the ministry conducted a thorough inspection of vegetable production bases, and wholesale markets in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Shenzhen in April this year. The result showed that 97.7 percent of the vegetable products passed the standards laid down by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC).

"Since vegetables in the above-mentioned four cities are supplied by producers from all over China, the result indicates that vegetable quality in the whole country is reliable," she said.

( September 7, 2002)