Taiwan Urges China To Scrap Freeze On Fruit Imports

Taiwan's envoy to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has urged Beijing to junk the unilateral suspension of the imports of several fruits from Taiwan at a WTO committee meeting on Wednesday, Tang Pei-chun, Fang Cheng-hsiang, and Teng Pei-ju reported for the Central News Agency (CNA).

Photo Insert: Before the suspension of the import of wax apples and custard apples, the controversy was over Taiwan's pineapples.

China suspended the import of Taiwanese wax apples and custard apples on Sep. 20, saying it had found mealybug Planococcus minor in several shipments from Taiwan this year. This followed a similar ban imposed by China on Taiwan's pineapples in February, also on pest concerns.

At a meeting of the WTO Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Committee Wednesday, Lo Chang-fa, Taiwan's permanent representative to the WTO, rejected China's claims.

Lo said less than 0.3 percent of imports of the two kinds of apples from Taiwan had been found at the Chinese border to have the bugs.

Shortly after, Taiwanese authorities were notified of the pest problem by their Chinese counterparts and they stepped up measures to better monitor and quarantine fruit consignments, Lo said.

Even if the fruit is found to have the pest at the border, it should still be allowed customs clearance after being fumigated, Lo said, adding that such an approach had been adopted by many countries.

Lo said China's import suspension targeting Taiwanese fruits had breached the WTO guidelines and lacked scientific backing. He urged the Chinese authorities to rescind its decision as soon as possible.

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