Chinese Producers Urge EU to Lift Seafood Ban

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, April 28, 2002

Chinese Producers Urge EU to Lift Seafood Ban

The China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Association has urged the European Union to drop its January 30 ban on imports of Chinese seafood.

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The China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Association has urged the European Union to drop its January 30 ban on imports of Chinese seafood.

Association president Zhang Mingyu said in a statement Monday that Chinese seafood products can be trusted and that the EU ban is unfair.

The EU Standing Veterinary Committee suspended the import of products of animal origin from China in late January, asserting that potentially risky chloramphenicol residues had been found in samples of shrimps and prawns imported from China.

But the Chinese association said that, after conducting meticulous investigations on Chinese seafood companies, it concluded that China's seafood products are "well worth the confidence of EU consumers."

"Based on the information the association has collected, the quality of seafood products for exports from the overwhelming majority of EU-certified enterprises in China is fully up to the relevant EU standards," the statement said.

The statement was hammered out after discussions with 94 key seafood processors and exporters in China. It urged the EU to review its 2002/69 EC decision and remove the restrictive measureson Chinese seafood products as soon as possible.

No EU-certified enterprises in China has ever before been put on the EU alert system for quality reasons, Zhang said.

"We believe that it is unfair and not based on scientific evidence for the commission to prohibit the imports of seafood products," he said. "It is also against the World Trade Organization rules regarding fair trade."

The volume of Chinese exports affected by the EU ban could amount to several hundred million U.S. dollars, according to sources with the association.

"To protect and promote the sound and steady growth of the China-EU fisheries trade, the EU should lift the restrictions and resume the import of seafood products from China as quickly as possible," Zhang said.

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