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To minimize the possibility of disputes over food safety,
ASEAN and China have launched their first-ever ministerial-level
meeting on the issue and reached agreement on areas of common
understanding.
"During this meeting, we reached a general agreement that communication
of legal requirements, and exchanges and cooperation should be
undertaken in the area of laws and regulations, as well as standards,"
China's minister for administration of quality supervision and
quarantine (AQSIQ), Li Chang Jiang, said Tuesday in Nanning, Guangxi
Zhuang autonomous region, China.
"This means that a common effort should be made so that our standards
are consistent with the international standards," Li said.
The event, which was titled "Strengthen Import and Export Food Safety
Management and Cooperation, Protect Consumer's Rights and Benefits",
lasted from Sunday to Monday and was held in conjunction with the
fourth China-ASEAN Expo.
Country representatives agreed on a number of points: to strengthen
cooperation and communication of food safety regulations and standards,
to improve food safety management and technical assurance capabilities,
and to promptly transmit any new food safety and sanitary and
phytosanitary (SPS) measures through designated contact points.
The representatives, who mainly comprised senior food-safety authority
officials, also agreed to strengthen cooperation to combat the illegal
food trade and to hold meetings at least once every two years.
However, the director of Indonesia's Food and Drug Monitoring Agency
(BPOM), Husniah Rubiana, said that the points agreed on at the meeting
were not yet binding as the actual MoU on food safety would be signed
at the ASEAN plus one meeting in Singapore early next month.
"Unlike AQSIQ, BPOM is not the sole authority responsible for food
safety as this is shared with the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries
Ministry and the Agriculture Quarantine Board. So, we cannot sign any
MoU here," she said.
On the disputes over food safety between the two countries, which
started in early August with Indonesia banning dozens of "hazardous"
candy and sweet products from China, followed by China banning
Indonesian fish products, Husniah only said that definitive conclusions
would be arrived at shortly.
"As you know, we are trying to reach common ground on the standards we
use to defining 'hazardous'."
ASEAN Secretary-General Vice Chairman Nicholas Tandi Dammen said
technical assistance cooperation between ASEAN and China was needed to
bridge the differences in food safety standards.
"I hope China will be able to provide technical assistance for its
counterparts in ASEAN so that it can contribute to the effort to ensure
effective supervision and management of products in each country," he
said.
Meanwhile, Li further said during the course of the meeting that talks
with Indonesia and the Philippines, which has also banned candy and
confectionery products from China, were still underway, although all
involved agreed on the need for stronger collaboration in the future.
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