Vice Minister Niu Meets with Under-Secretary of US Department of Agriculture

Source: MOA Department of International Cooperation

On September 17, Vice Minister Niu met with Jim Miller, Under-Secretary of US Department of Agriculture (USDA), and Isi Siddiqui, Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). The two sides exchanged views on market access of agricultural products.

Under-Secretary Miller said that since its beef export to China was an issue of the most concern to the US, they would submit to the Chinese side by the end of September a work plan laying out specific steps to resolve the issue. In response, Vice Minister Niu said that this was an issue concerning food hygiene and safety, therefore should be settled on a scientific basis. In fact, the Chinese side proposed approaches to the issue as early as 2007, but did not get the agreement of the American side, so the responsibility did not lie with the Chinese side but the US.

Vice Minister Niu said that the Chinese side had been quite concerned with its export of cooked poultry to the US, and the US side should honor its commitments made at the meeting of the 20th China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade (JCCT) to deal with the issue. Vice Minister Niu also expressed China s concern about automatic detention of four aquatic products exported to the US, and its export of Chinese longsnout catfish, honey and horticultural products to the US, hoping that progress could be made on these issues at the upcoming 21st JCCT meeting.

Under-Secretary Miller expressed understanding of concerns mentioned by Vice Minister Niu, by saying that the US Department of Agriculture had always attached great importance to the resolution of the issue concerning China s export of cooked poultry to the US and would dispatch an investigation delegation to China for the field survey. He added that the USDA was taking efforts in relevant fields, with a hope of making progress in issues concerning China s export of poultry, apples, and wooden handicrafts etc.

The two sides also discussed matters relating to the meeting of Agricultural Cooperation Working Group of the 21st JCCT.

(Date: 16:42 17 Sept. 2010)