European Union veterinary experts decided Friday to ease import controls to the 15-nation bloc on Chinese fish, as well as shrimp from Vietnam and Pakistan, imposed due to health concerns, the European Commission said.
In view of the satisfactory results gathered in recent months regarding harmful antibiotics, the executive body said, sanitary verification was no longer necessary for Chinese imports of Alaskan pollack, cod, red mullet, whiting, halibut, haddock, herring, sole, cuttlefish, plaice and Pacific salmon.
For the same reason, shrimp coming from Vietnam and Pakistan will no longer require verification, it said.
The EU in January had banned imports of Chinese fish and animal products after traces of a powerful antibiotic, chloramphenicol, were found in the Chinese imports. The antibiotic was outlawed in Europe in 1994 and in China in 2000.
In May the EU partially lifted the restrictions, and imposed reinforced sanitary controls.
Such controls were already in place in January on shrimp from Pakistan, also found to contain chloramphenicol, and in March were imposed on shrimp from Vietnam, after traces of the antibiotic Nitrofurane were detected.
Separately, the EU experts decided Friday to impose systematic controls on imports of powdered milk from Ukraine and on chicken from Brazil, after discovering traces of chloramphenicol or Nitrofurane.
(China Daily September 21, 2002)
