BEIJING – A team of U.S. health officials arrived in Beijing yesterday for talks on tightening controls over food and drug trade, amid tensions triggered by U.S. restrictions on questionable – and sometimes dangerous – Chinese products.
China complains that some recent U.S. actions against its exports have been unnecessary and says the international media have blown concerns about its product safety record out of proportion.
The U.S. delegation, led by Department of Health and Human Services official Rich McKeown, will discuss ways to improve the flow of information and devise regulations both sides can be confident in, Mike Leavitt, secretary of the department, said in a statement issued before the group's arrival.
The group will focus on developing agreements on the safety of food, drugs and medical devices, with the hope of completing them by December.
“Our U.S. regulatory agencies are concerned about what they see as an insufficient infrastructure across the board in China to assure the safety, quality and effectiveness of many products exported to the United States,” Leavitt said in the statement.
“We believe that with the technology, the scientific expertise and the commitment each side has, we can work together to correct the outstanding issues,” he said.
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing confirmed the arrival of the delegation but did not give any details on the itinerary or agenda for the five-day visit.
An official with China's General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, the chief body for monitoring product safety, said yesterday that a vice minister will meet the U.S. team.
Chinese officials have said the talks also would focus on U.S. restrictions imposed on food imports including catfish, shrimp and eel after repeated testing turned up contamination with drugs that have not been approved in the United States for farmed seafood.
China last month criticized the new restrictions as “indiscriminate” and “unacceptable,” and urged closer cooperation on food safety between the two sides.
Last month, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang warned the media against exaggerating China's food safety problems and stirring consumer panic.
International worries about Chinese exports were triggered in March, when a pet food pet-food ingredient from China was linked to the deaths of cats and dogs in North America.
Since then, a growing list of Chinese exports – including toothpaste, tires and seafood – have been recalled or rejected around the world.
But in recent weeks, Chinese authorities have prominently announced their own rejections of imports from the United States, including orange pulp, dried apricots, raisins and health supplements.
