Nation: Mainland denies blocking trade

Quality loopholes key reason for barring Taiwan products

China’s chief quality supervision official denied reports that the Chinese mainland had adopted a stricter supervision standard for imported Taiwan products while acknowledging that the Taiwan leader’s failure to recognize the one- China policy had hindered the flow of information between the two sides.

Zhi Shuping, head of China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, said on Tuesday at a press conference on the sidelines of the two sessions in Beijing that 43 percent of the imported Taiwan products, a majority of which are food and cosmetics, were found to have poor quality and were denied entry into the Chinese main- land in January.

In comparison, an average of 23.7 percent of Taiwan products shipped to the mainland were denied entry in 2016.

“Because the current Taiwan leader refuses to recognize the 1992 Consensus, our cooperation has been hindered. Some information did not flow smoothly as it did before, such as the changes in policies or standards from our side,” Zhi said.

“However, there are also loopholes in Taiwan government’s quality control, especially in terms of food. We have earnestly communicated the problem we identified in each batch of goods barred. But our advice was not heeded in time and changes were not properly implemented by the Taiwan side,” Zhi noted.

Zhi denied claims that the mainland had set a stricter supervision standard on Taiwan products and said the safety standard was universal.

“Frankly speaking, our customs department has provided a lot of convenience for Taiwan exporters, especially along the coastal areas. Despite being brothers, we also have principles to stick to,” Zhi said.

He urged the Taiwan leader to return to the track of oneChina principle, saying that “people from both sides of the Taiwan Straits belong to one China and our emotions for our Taiwan brothers would not change.”

The chief quarantine and quality supervision official also spoke candidly about the quality issues of some Chinese products exported to Africa.

China exports machinery and electronics, textile and apparel, as well as hi- tech products to Africa. Chinese products are popular in Africa due to their low prices. However there have been controversies over the quality of these goods.

According to Zhi, in 2016 alone, China stopped more than 660,000 products from leaving the country to head to Africa due to quality reasons.

“The quality of Chinese products exported to Africa is slowly improving. The failure rate at our inspection points decreased from 7.6 percent in the past to 3.2 percent in 2016,” he said.

Zhi told the Global Times that his administration has also cooperated with 14 African countries to crack down on counterfeit products.