Visiting US politicians yesterday said they had been aware of
the danger of trade protectionism against China in the US Congress
and would like to intensify mutual cooperation to prevent it.
"There's certainly been some efforts (in fanning trade
protectionism)," State of Maine Senator Philip Bartlett told
China Daily after he met Li Changjiang, China's top
quality control official.
"Some individual politicians are exploiting this opportunity,
trying to go for protectionism for other reasons."
The recent safety scares involving Chinese products, ranging
from pet food to toys, has caused concern in the US. The US
Congress has passed a number of bills to limit, or strengthen
inspections on the import of Chinese products.
However, Li, minister of the General Administration of Quality
Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), said the criticism
of Chinese products in general was media hype and trade
protectionism.
He said the qualification rates of Chinese products to the US in
the past three-and-a-half years have remained the same, and only in
recent months has it become a hot topic.
He said China's qualification rates were higher than many other
countries, including India and Mexico, but only Chinese products
have become the target.
"There's growing trade protectionism in the US Congress against
China, and it's becoming obvious," he told Bartlett and his
visiting delegation of the American Council of Young Political
Leaders. "I really worry that such protectionism could harm us
both."
But Li said he was glad to notice that some US economists had
realized the harms of such protectionism and had signed a petition
to the Congress early this month.
In the petition, 1,028 economists from all 50 states and top
universities in the US warned that a move toward protectionism
could lead to a futile and harmful trade war, causing higher
prices, job cuts and reduced economic growth for the US and
businesses.
Mark Kirk, member of the US Congress and co-chair of the
US-China Working Group, who is on another visiting US delegation to
China, also acknowledged there was the danger of trade
protectionism in the Congress.
But both Kirk and Bartlett said food and product safety had
become a "very real concern" to Americans.
"When we talk about the currency issue, it's often not
well-understood by the American people. But poisonous pet food and
unsafe toys are understood immediately. It's an emotional issue,"
Kirk said.
Bartlett also said he hoped the Chinese government could
understand why the issue had become so heated in the US.
"We would be vulnerable to anything that affects our children,"
he said. "The American people buy things not only with their heads
but also with their hearts."
Bartlett said remarks by individual politicians should not be
construed as the policy of the US government. He said he hoped the
two countries could continue negotiations to form mutual trust.
"We also have domestic food safety problems. It's important to
help each other to get better rather than building up walls to hurt
us all," he said.
To intensify exchanges, AQSIQ Vice-Minister Wei Chuanzhong will
head a delegation to the US early next month for the third US-China
food safety meeting and the second US-China meeting on the safety
of consumer products. The two countries will also hold a
vice-ministerial meeting on food and feed safety next month in
Beijing.
In another development yesterday, Li said during a food safety
inspection tour in Beijing that China had launched an advanced food
quality control and tracking system for the Beijing Olympics.
Tang Yunhua, spokeswoman of the Beijing Food Safety Office, said
the system started trial operations on August 8, and encompasses
scrutiny over the whole food chain from raw materials to processing
and delivery.
(China Daily August 29 2007)
