The European Union respects the measures the Chinese government
has taken recently to improve food safety, but the actual results
are what is most important, said an EU food safety official in
Beijing yesterday.
European Commissioner for Health Markos Kyprianou commented: "We
see a movement (here in China). We see a commitment to improving
the situation. However, at the end of the day, what makes the
difference is the actual results."
He welcomed the creation of a special food safety leadership
team, explaining that one of the problems in China is the
fragmentation of the food safety control system and the new
leadership team will work with better collaboration.
He noted that with an increased volume of trade between China
and the EU, there is also an increase in the interceptions of
products that do not meet the standards.
"This cannot be justified by the increase in trade and therefore
we will seize the opportunity to discuss with the Chinese
government what steps will be taken to improve the situation," the
official said.
"The European Union has an obligation to ensure any product that
reaches the European consumers meets the same food safety
standards," he stressed, and "the provision is applied objectively
and equally. It concerns both products produced in Europe, products
imported to Europe, and products meant for export."
He explained that the EU takes a step-by-step approach in
tackling food safety problems of imported products. "While taking
certain control measures ourselves, we will at the same time give
the opportunity, if no immediate risk is caused, to the authorities
of the exporting countries to correct the situation."
"However," he warned, "if the situation is not improved, the EU
may have to take stricter measures. We may have to ban the import
of specific products. It's a risk-based approach and it's on an
item-by-item, product-by-product basis."
"Therefore," he continued, "we will be following very closely
and monitoring the situation, especially through our Rapid Alert
System for Food and Feed (RASFF) and find the number of cases of
products that do not meet the requirements."
However, introducing a ban will be the last resort EU will take,
he promised. "It's not the first step unless it causes immediate
threat to human health."
In 2006, China was the most notified country in the EU's RASFF,
with over 260 food safety problems relating to Chinese
products.
In a meeting with Li Changjiang, director of China's General
Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine,
yesterday, both sides agreed to reduce the figure and Kyprianou
expressed the EU's willingness to provide any support necessary to
achieve this goal.
In the past two days, Kyprianou also met with health and food
safety officials in Shanghai and Beijing.
(China.org.cn by staff reporter Yuan Fang, September 13,
2007)
