Reuters AlertNet Lite - China rejects accusations over exports to Indonesia

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China rejects accusations over exports to Indonesia

06 Sep 2007 10:33:16 GMT
Source: Reuters

BEIJING, Sept 6 (Reuters) - China on Thursday dismissed a newspaper report that it had asked Indonesia to lower safety standards on Chinese imports, saying it always treats its trading partners equally.

Chinese products have come under intense scrutiny over safety concerns in recent months, prompting recalls of products from toys and toothpaste to seafood and tyres.

The Washington Post said on Wednesday that China had suggested Indonesia lower its safety standards after Jakarta found mercury-laced makeup that turns skin black and carcinogenic candy.

"The report is purely false," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference.

"The situation you mentioned does not exist... and the head of the Indonesian delegation who came to China yesterday to meet with Chinese quality authorities had verified that they did not say anything like that."

The spokeswoman also denied China attached more importance to developed countries in product safety.

"It is not fair to decide the supervision and quarantine of the exports according to the size, strong or weak of the trading partners," she said, "China will not do something like this, and is strongly opposed to it."

China has blamed the international media for fanning the flames of panic over Chinese products. Beijing says the vast majority of Chinese exports are safe and even rejected a handful of shipments of U.S. products saying they did not meet standards.

China's President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao both said on Thursday that China took food safety very seriously.

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Last updated:Thu Sep 6 10:33:33 2007