The European Union has just ended its 20 month suspension of animal and meat imports from China, the deputy head of the Delegation of the European Commission to China announced in Beijing Monday.

The ban covered a wide array of products, such as shrimp, farmed fish, honey, royal jelly and rabbit meat, said Franz Jessenat a press conference held by the EU Embassy in Beijing.

But its ban on the imports of chicken and other poultry products remains in place. In an attempt to resolve the issue, a four-member inspection mission will visit China next week to assess the situation of China's poultry industry to see if exports to the EU can be resumed.

In January 2002, the EU banned the imports for food safety reasons, particularly because of the presence of residues of veterinary medicines in food and animal feed from China. The imports affected under the ban were worth about 400 million euros, said Jessen.

Over the last two years, the EU has learned more about China's efforts in food production and security while Chinese enterprises have learned more about the standards and requirements of the EU. The favorable results of the checks carried out by EU member states have already allowed the Commission to relax the restrictions for a range of Chinese products including casings, sea-caught fish and crayfish.

China has made remarkable progress in controlling and monitoring the residues on food products, and the Commission is now satisfied it can safely ease import restrictions, said Jessen.

According to Chinese customs statistics, China-EU trade in the first eight months of this year hit US$111.64 billion, up 36.6 percent year-on-year. Of the total, China's exports amounted to US$65.47 billion and imports US$46.17 billion, up 39 percent and 33.4 percent respectively.

On May 1, 2004, the EU expanded its member countries from 15 to25, thus becoming China's largest trade partner and fourth largest investor. China is the second biggest trade partner of the EU.

(Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2004)