The government has an active role to play in guarding food
safety, says an editorial in Beijing Youth Daily. The
following is an excerpt:
Li Changjiang, chief of the General Administration of Quality
Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said his administration
will impose market access evaluations on licensing food producers,
as part of its efforts to step up the administrative control of
quality.
This new arrangement, of all the recent measures, indicates the
government's determination to play an active part in ensuring food
safety.
The central government and local governments at all levels have
issued laws, regulations, policies and special campaigns relating
to food safety in recent months.
The market access evaluation for producers is probably the most
effective means to achieve this target in theory, but it is also
the most doubted administrative tool.
The public is reluctant to support administrative controls on
market access, as improper governmental intervention could affect
the fledgling market economy.
Also, people tend to doubt whether licensed producers would
stick to the rules after they passed their assessments.
Such concerns are not baseless. However, they only make it more
urgent for the government to improve current codes and practical
arrangements for market access assessment, rather than totally drop
the assessment itself.
After all, the government is both responsible for and capable of
fighting malpractice to ensure public health.
There is an opinion that full competition should be encouraged
so producers with higher costs or inferior quality will be driven
out automatically.
But while the idea works in theory, it could lead to physical
harm to consumers before the rule of the market economy begins to
weed out the bad apples.
Worse, the producers of inferior food might even beat their
honest competitors in a market without effective supervision.
It is necessary for the government to identify unsuitable
businesses before they are allowed into the market.
On top of that, the State should also devise a range of
supervisory measures to watch the licensed producers. Public
supervision is also needed to prevent the government officials from
manipulating the assessment for their own benefit.
(China Daily August 14, 2007)