JABAR EKSPRES – China authorities have lifted a ban on beef imports from Poland and Belgium, while some restaurant operators in the world’s second-largest economy have started to stop importing fish from Japan due to nuclear waste disposal plans.
The China Customs Administration (GAC) and China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MOA) have sent a team of experts to Poland and Belgium to evaluate the mad cow disease control and prevention system.
The results were in line with quarantine and health requirements, so China lifted the import ban, according to a joint statement by the GAC and MOA monitored in Beijing on Sunday.
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The import ban was issued in March 2001 after both countries were hit by mad cow disease outbreaks.
The GAC and MOA have also suspended the ban on pork imports from Italy. The import ban had been in place since 1999 due to an outbreak of swine flu.
In February, China also suspended its ban on pork imports from Colombia.
Meanwhile, some Japanese restaurant operators in China have stopped importing fish from Japan.
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The halt in fish imports from Japan was triggered by the international community’s concerns over Tokyo Electric Power Company’s planned dumping of nuclear waste into the Pacific Ocean, Chinese media outlet Global Times reported.
“In light of the news about the radioactive water discharge plan, many of our customers are worried about Japanese food,” a Japanese restaurant manager in Beijing was quoted as saying by the media affiliated with Chinese authorities.
