Agence France Presse | January 31, 2002
China has destroyed allegedly contaminated meat products from Brazil, Argentina, Israel and Spain and suspended the import of pig offal from several countries including the United States and France, state press said Thursday.
Quarantine offices in the southern region of Shenzhen destroyed around 1,000 kilograms of beef from Brazil and Argentina, the China Daily reported.
Also destroyed were 3.8 tonnes of goose wings from Israel and five tonnes of frozen pork tripe from Spain. The products were contaminated by foot-and-mouth disease, the poultry illness Newcastle disease and swine fever respectively, Shenzhen quarantine official Huang Wanli was quoted as saying.
Also Thursday it was announced that the State General Administration for Quality Supervision in Beijing had suspended imports of pig offal from 20 exporters in countries including the United States, Canada, France and Belgium.
About 1,000 tonnes of pig offal imports had been found to be contaminated with listeria bacilli and salmonella germs since November, the paper said.
China has appeared to step up quarantine efforts following its long-awaited entry into the World Trade Organization on December 11, sparking fears Beijing could be using food safety issues as a pretext for introducing new barriers to imports as tariffs fall under the terms of its membership.
They also come as trade minister Shi Guangsheng is scheduled to hold talks with the European Union in Brussels later Thursday on an EU ban on certain imports of Chinese meat and seafood products.
The EU trade commission said last Friday it was taking the action after an EU mission to China last November found problems related to the use of banned veterinary medicines, including a powerful antibiotic called chloramphenicol.
The ban went into effect on Monday.
China reacted angrily to the move, calling it "unacceptable" and warning it could seriously affect bilateral trade.
Meanwhile, China also halted the import of chicken wing tips from an unnamed United States producer after finding 47 tons of the product tainted with salmonella in southeastern Fujian province since December 27, Xinhua news agency said late Wednesday.
Earlier this year, quarantine bureaus in southern Guangdong province destroyed nearly 50 tonnes of imported US chicken parts said to be contaminated with the E. Coli 0157 virus.
US officials in Beijing said they were willing to comply with Chinese quarantine restrictions.
However they asked for samples of the infected chicken, maintaining that US biologists have never found E. Coli 0157 in chicken. The bacteria is mainly found in infected beef products.Agence France Presse:
