In a bid to ensure they meet with Japan's new law on food imports, Chinese farm product exporters are being urged to intensify their food inspections. 

The law, which took effect yesterday, is called the "positive list" system and features new tests including whether pesticides or other chemicals have been in contact with foods.

The Japanese government said the law was aimed at improving the quality of imported food and banning the overuse of fertilizers and pesticides in regard to agricultural products.

"We expect domestic farm product exporters to improve their management skills in production and their ability in inspections to avoid any possible risks in exports to Japan," said Chong Quan, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Commerce.

Japan is China's largest export market for farm products and accounts for one-third of the total amount exported. Nearly 40 percent of China's agricultural export firms regard Japan as their leading market.

Chong said the law was "expected to have a large impact on Sino-Japanese farm trade."

He expected Japan to make efforts to ensure normal agricultural trade continued between the two countries and said the Chinese government had adopted measures to minimize the impact on farmers.

The commerce ministry and relevant government agencies have held training courses for export enterprises across China which started at the end of 2005. Over 4,000 people from around one third of the companies involved in exporting agricultural products to Japan have attended.

The ministry is continuing to provide exporters with up-to-date information on the new regulations.

According to Japanese figures there are now over 97,000 limitation standards for imported farm products contained in the new legislation on 135 types of food and 724 kinds of pesticide. In the previous legislation there were 9,000 limitation standards on 130 kinds of imported farm products and 229 sorts of pesticide.

Meanwhile, Chong said the European Union Trade Commissioner, Peter Mandelson, was scheduled to visit China on June 5.

He's expected to have talks with his Chinese counterpart, Commerce Minister Bo Xilai, on a range of issues such as bilateral trade, market economy status, intellectual property rights protection and the Doha Development Agenda.

(China Daily May 30, 2006)