ID :
113900
Mon, 03/29/2010 - 07:50
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/113900
The shortlink copeid
Japan ready to strike food safety deal with China+
TOKYO, March 27 Kyodo - Japan plans to make final arrangements with China for a bilateral deal on food safety, following the detention of a Chinese man suspected of involvement in poisoning frozen dumplings that made 10 people ill in Japan two years ago,
government sources said Saturday.
Tokyo hopes to reach a formal agreement with Beijing by the time Prime Minister
Yukio Hatoyama visits China for an expo in Shanghai, possibly in early May, the
sources told Kyodo News.
The envisaged deal, which would allow for mutual on-site inspections of
facilities processing food for export, has been sought by both nations since
last October, when Hatoyama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao agreed to create a
new initiative to ensure food safety.
Concerns lingered on the Japanese side that striking such a deal before the
dumpling poisoning case was settled would leave the case up in the air.
But the recent detention of Lu Yueting, a 36-year-old former temporary employee
at the Tianyang Food Plant in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, has cleared the
path for accelerating talks on a bilateral agreement, a senior Japanese Foreign
Ministry official said.
Under a draft accord prepared by working-level officials from Japan and China,
Japanese and Chinese personnel would be allowed to carry out on-site
inspections of food facilities in each other's countries, contingent on the
other side's approval.
The pesticide-tainted dumplings manufactured by Tianyang Food caused 10 people
to fall ill in Japan from December 2007 to January 2008, with nine of them
hospitalized, sparking anxiety across the country over products imported from
China.
Japan and China agreed to cooperate in investigating the case. In February
2008, both sides denied that the dumplings were tainted with methamidophos in
their own countries and China suspended its probe.
In June the same year, Chinese people who ate dumplings recalled by Tianyang
Food complained of similar methamidophos poisoning, prompting the Chinese
authorities to reopen their investigation, suspecting deliberate tainting of
the dumplings at the company.
==Kyodo
government sources said Saturday.
Tokyo hopes to reach a formal agreement with Beijing by the time Prime Minister
Yukio Hatoyama visits China for an expo in Shanghai, possibly in early May, the
sources told Kyodo News.
The envisaged deal, which would allow for mutual on-site inspections of
facilities processing food for export, has been sought by both nations since
last October, when Hatoyama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao agreed to create a
new initiative to ensure food safety.
Concerns lingered on the Japanese side that striking such a deal before the
dumpling poisoning case was settled would leave the case up in the air.
But the recent detention of Lu Yueting, a 36-year-old former temporary employee
at the Tianyang Food Plant in Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, has cleared the
path for accelerating talks on a bilateral agreement, a senior Japanese Foreign
Ministry official said.
Under a draft accord prepared by working-level officials from Japan and China,
Japanese and Chinese personnel would be allowed to carry out on-site
inspections of food facilities in each other's countries, contingent on the
other side's approval.
The pesticide-tainted dumplings manufactured by Tianyang Food caused 10 people
to fall ill in Japan from December 2007 to January 2008, with nine of them
hospitalized, sparking anxiety across the country over products imported from
China.
Japan and China agreed to cooperate in investigating the case. In February
2008, both sides denied that the dumplings were tainted with methamidophos in
their own countries and China suspended its probe.
In June the same year, Chinese people who ate dumplings recalled by Tianyang
Food complained of similar methamidophos poisoning, prompting the Chinese
authorities to reopen their investigation, suspecting deliberate tainting of
the dumplings at the company.
==Kyodo
