The Council of Agriculture (COA) said Wednesday Taiwanese exporters had been unfairly inconvenienced by China’s rejection of shipments that do not adhere to strictly enforced yet unclear customs regulations.
Lin Chih-hung (???), deputy head of the COA’s Department of International Affairs, told CNA in a telephone interview that Beijing had treated Taiwanese exporters with undue harshness.
The COA official said China was practicing double standards by giving non-Taiwanese exporters a more lenient deadline to meet new rules and requiring firms in Taiwan to submit paper copies of documentation instead of online like in other countries.
According to Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), “wording,” “mistakes in production licenses” and “mistakes in labeling the place of origin” were the three most common reasons cited by Chinese customs officials when rejecting Taiwanese exports.
Taiwan’s government over the past week found that China had halted imports of squid, Pacific sauries, fourfinger threadfin, Kaoliang liquor, Taiwan Beer and a variety of nonalcoholic beverages.
The import suspensions followed an earlier halting of pastries shipments, which started before the Mid-Autumn Festival in late September.
COA officials have said previously that two of the rejected seafood exporters resubmitted customs documentation in July and August but had not heard from China’s General Administration of Customs since.
China said it had implemented suspensions due to exporters’ failure to comply with customs registration requirements that came into force last year.
According to Cheng Wei-chih (???), deputy head of the FDA’s Food Safety Division, when the FDA asked China how to correct the issues, it did not reply.
As such, the FDA did not know what had caused the issues raised by China, Cheng said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (???) said that the requirement that exporters must provide the formula of their products only applies to Taiwanese bakeries.
Hsueh was responding to reporters’ questions on the issue before attending a hearing at the Legislature.
The FDA said Tuesday that exporters were required to disclose the formula of their products if they wanted to sell them to China.
Asked if FDA had helped the 31 exporters that registered successfully through China’s “recommended registration” channel deliver their formulas to China, Hsueh said that only bakeries needed to provide their formulas, and the exporters in question were not bakeries.
In addition, bakeries are required to use the “self-registration,” not the “recommended” channel, he said.
Hsueh also denied FDA’s seizure of daikon radishes from China were retaliation for China’s import suspensions.
The shipment of daikon radishes contained excessive pesticide residues and was seized in accordance with due procedures, he said.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel