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| Statement by DG Zhang Xiangchen, Head of Chinese Delegation |
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| 2007-10-23 10:30 |
Mr. Chairman,
During the previous SPS committee meeting, the Chinese Delegation made a presentation on the Chinese Food Export Management System. Today I’d like to take this opportunity to update you further on recent efforts by the Chinese government to strengthen food safety so as to facilitate information flow and exchanges with members on this very important subject.
The Chinese Government has always attached great importance to issues of product quality, public health and safety. The Government has established and further developed the rules, regulations as well as a system of standardization. Moreover, it has continuously stepped up enforcement and supervision efforts, and taken strict control measures that cover areas from production to export. And so, in general terms, the quality of the Chinese export proves to be satisfactory. According to the testing results for the period of 2004 to the first half of 2007, more than 99% of the food that China exported to U.S., E.U, and Japan met the standard, and the percentage is higher than those of the exporting countries to China in the same corresponding period.
Since March this year, in response to some countries’ concerns and media coverage on Chinese food safety, China has subsequently adopted five important measures, and has meanwhile taken legal actions against those enterprises that broke the law. So far, 444 enterprises have been “blacklisted” by China’s Ministry of Commerce; the foreign trade rights of those illegal enterprises have also been expropriated according to law. These measures clearly demonstrate that China is a country of high sense of responsibility, and even with only 1% of products of inferior quality, the country will not shy away from or cover them up but spare no efforts in tackling and solving the problem in an honest manner.
Mr. Chairman, now please allow me to brief the committee about a series of important measures recently put into effect by the Chinese Government to strengthen product quality and food safety. These measures include: 1. six provisions on how to enhance product quality put forward by Premier Wen Jiabao at the National Working Conference on Quality sponsored by the State Council; 2. establishment of the Product Quality and Food Safety Steering Group under the State Council, adoption and implementation of “the Special Regulations of the State Council on Strengthening Safety Supervision and Administration of Food and Other Products”, which further enhanced the product supervision and management capability of the relevant agencies. 3. the State Council Notice on Strengthening Product Quality and Food Safety clearly defines the liability of enterprises as the first person-in-charge for the product quality and food safety, and the responsibility of the local governments for oversighting quality of locally produced product; 4. China's White Paper on Food Quality and Safety by the Information Office of the State Council presents in detail the current situation about food safety in China; 5. a 4-month-period special rectification programme on product quality and food safety is being carried out in China and Vice Premier Wu Yi has given full instructions highlighting 8 major tasks and 20 goals. She stressed on “two chains”, “one system” and “one network”. The two chains are: a line of supervision for industrial products from designing, raw materials, processing to sales, and another line of supervision for agricultural products from farms to market and to the dining table. “One system” is the system on traceability and accountability. “One network” refers to the supervision network reaching out to cover the whole society. Theses measures are pragmatic, scientific and thorough weaving an effective network to ensure product quality and safety.
Mr. Chairman, China, like other WTO members, is devoting its utmost efforts to continuously strengthen the supervision and management system as well as measures to ensure food safety and protect consumers’ health. Meanwhile China believes that members should adopt an objective and reasonable attitude towards food safety problems arising in the course of international trade. The trading partners should always uphold the spirit of cooperation and work together to determine the nature and the causes of specific cases, and take prompt and appropriate actions to avoid similar problems. This is also the approach that is encouraged and advocated by SPS Agreement and in line with the basic principle of the international standard. Such an approach helps to analyze and solve problems scientifically, practically and realistically and helps to avoid adverse impact on international trade. If ill-intentioned fanfare behaviors are not properly handled, it will throw the consumers into panic, which goes contrary to solving the problem in a reasonable manner, and will have negative bearings on the smooth development of bilateral trade as well.
Mr. Chairman, food safety is a global issue. A recent WHO statement pointed out that WHO receives about 200 reports on food safety problems from their 193 members every month. WHO Director General Margaret Chan also stressed that food safety is a shared problem common to the entire world, so all governments should strengthen the related supervision and management systems and take measures to ensure food safety. In recent years, the Chinese Government has been strengthening its cooperation with other members as well as with relevant international organizations to share each other’s experience in this area. In late November this year, the Chinese government together with WHO will hold an “International High-Level Forum on Food Safety”, and the subject of which is right on “Strengthening Communication and Cooperation to Ensure Food Safety”.
China sincerely hopes that WTO members can continuously strengthen cooperation in the area of food safety to share management experiences, learn from each other, and together to meet the global challenges and ultimately achieve the goal of protecting consumers’ health.
Mr. Chairman, please allow me to end my presentation by a quotation from a letter on the October 15 Issue of Newsweek by an Indian reader. I quote: “Every sixth person in the world used to be Chinese. Now every sixth consumer product sold in the world is Chinese. Is there any country that does not buy/use Chinese products? Today the world economy needs China, rather than the other way around”. With this, I sincerely hope that our trading partners could continue accept the fruit of world division of labor and enjoy low price, good quality Chinese products and services. Of course, we will do our parts to ensure the quality and safety of the products made in China.
Thank you Mr. Chairman and thank you all for your attention.
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