On March 27, Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced that, from April 1 to the end of October, all imported agricultural products would be subject to quarantine. Kobe port, for example, will now quarantine only 41 products, instead of over 200 previously. As China’s annual volume of fresh vegetable exports to Japan reaches 1 million tons, this is a non-tariff trade barrier that will inevitably affect the country’s vegetable producers and exporters.
On March 30, Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, joining with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, urged implementation of “emergency restriction on imports” of three products – large green Chinese onion, mushrooms and rushes used for making Japanese floor matting – from China.
On the afternoon of March 30, an official of the Information Department of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said he would not respond to media reports, but the ministry would announce countermeasures in a few days after receiving official notification.
Yang Rui, Chinese representative of Japan’s KIFA Company, which specializes in Chinese-Japanese vegetable trade, said that the import limits would be a fatal blow on Chinese enterprises, “Due to lack of advance notification, we delivered goods to Japan last week, and most of them will rot, owing to the delay caused by quarantine, since these are fresh vegetables that can only be preserved for 29 days. The delivery from China to Japan takes some 10 days. If a quick customs clearance cannot be guaranteed, we may lose every cent invested.” Hence, production would have to be reduced or even halted.
“Winter and spring are the vegetable seasons in Fujian and Guangdong provinces, while the vegetables produced in Shandong Province appear on the market in summer and autumn. Our losses will be huge,” Yang noted.
KIFA’s vegetable production bases in Fujian and Shandong cover a total area of 1,000 hectares, which yield a trade value of US$6 million. Of the figure, 90 percent is from the trade with Japan.
Anqiu County in Shandong is the production base for large green onions exported to Japan. There are several hundred green onion production and processing factories of varying sizes in the county. According to Zhu Jianhui, business manager of the Anqiu Ludong Food Co., Ltd., the growing area was expanded this year as a result of good economic returns in the past two years. The Japanese sanctions would result in the closure of a great number of processing factories, he said.
Yin Zhongyi, director of the WTO Information Center, said, “Chinese businesses have the right to claim, through the Chinese government, damages against the Japanese government if their vegetables delivered to Japan without the knowledge of the new rules end up rotting.”
Chinese businesses may also present to the Chinese government evidence against the legality of Japan’s non-tariff trade barrier, or put forward questions or take initiative to file lawsuits, he said. “Whether the barrier is rightful depends on whether it exceeds the international standard, whether it conforms to the principles of Most-Favored-Nation treatment and whether it has supporting grounds. In addition, the exporters of agricultural products must make sure they are not engaged in dumping.”
Www.wtoinfo.net.cn, the website of the center, provides small and medium-size businesses with free information services. With the help of such a non-governmental consulting agency, Chinese agricultural products processing businesses and exporters may protect themselves according to law.
(www.china.org.cn 04/06/2001)
