Vice Minister Niu Dun Meets with USDA Under Secretary and Chief Agricultural Negotiator of US

Source: MOA Department of International Cooperation

May 26-Vice Minister Niu Dun met the Under Secretary of USDA, Mr. Jim Miller, and agricultural negotiator of the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), Mr. Isi Siddiqui, who were participating in the second round of Sino-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue. The two sides candidly exchanged opinions on issues of agricultural trade of the concerns.

Vice Minister Niu pointed out that in recent years, Sino-US agricultural trade was developing rapidly, yet with severe imbalance where the Chinese side was suffering from major deficit. The American side should improve the market access of agricultural products. The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has paid high attention to the export issue of China s poultry meat, aquatic products, fruit and potted landscapes to US, hoping that the American side could provide a timetable and roadmap to remove the restriction on China s agricultural products.

Vice Minister Niu further pointed out that despite the promise of the American side to resolve the issue on the export of China s processed poultry meat, non substantial trade had been restored so far; the Chinese side has adhered to the regionalization principle of OIE to implement import restriction from those American states hit by avian flu, while the American side has totally banned the import of all Chinese poultry meat; China s aquatic product export to US has suffered from the discriminative automatic detention measures; and the negotiation on China s export of horticulture products to US has been going on for over a decade without being properly resolved.

In terms of the export of US pork and poultry meat to China, Vice Minister Niu stressed that the bilateral agricultural trade should adhere to scientific standards and the principle of reciprocity. While ractopamine is not contained in the pork exported from US to Europe, it is quite fair for China to ask for the same; China has provided over ten strains of avian flu virus to the US, yet the US has provided no strains of low pathogenic avian flu virus to China.

Under Secretary Miller expressed his understanding to the concerns raised by Vice Minister Niu, and stated that USDA had been working vigorously to push forward relevant work, and hopefully there would be progress in the export of China s poultry meat, Yali pear and wooden handcrafts to the US.

Date: 11:25 28 May 2010