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- Food exporters around the world are calling for evidence after China recently alleged imported products from New Zealand were tainted with COVID-19
- So far, China has claimed to have discovered contaminated food and packing imported from around 20 countries, including Germany, India and Brazil
- A Canadian representative at a recent World Health Organisation meeting called China’s failure to provide evidence, while continuing to hamper international exporters, tantamount to an “unjustified trade restriction”
- In response, a Chinese trade representative said the nation’s testing methods are “based on scientific basis” and designed to “protect people’s lives to the maximum extent”
- Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation continues to assert that neither food nor packaging are known transmitters of the virus
Food exporters around the world are calling for evidence after China recently claimed imported products from New Zealand were tainted with COVID-19.
The alleged contamination was reported in the Chinese city of Jinan on beef imports from New Zealand. Since then, China has claimed to have discovered similar findings on products from around 20 countries, including Germany, India and Brazil.
However, global food exporters around the world are now disputing these claims and calling for the Chinese authorities to release evidence of their as-yet unverified findings.
China claims to have first discovered a COVID-19 contaminated batch of food from Brazil in August and has been aggressively ramping up testing ever since.
In response, Canada, with the backing of many global food producing nations, rebuffed China’s testing practices at a World Health Organisation (WHO) meeting earlier this month.
A Canadian representative called China’s failure to provide evidence, while continuing to hamper international exporters, tantamount to an “unjustified trade restriction.”
Canada’s concerns were backed by representatives from Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Britain and the United States.
Responding to the issues raised at the WHO meeting, a Chinese trade official said the tests were “based on scientific basis” and designed to “protect people’s lives to the maximum extent”.
Chinese state-backed newspaper the Global Times went as far as to claim that, due to the recent findings, it was possible the virus originated overseas, and not in the city of Wuhan, as is widely believed.
Meanwhile, the WHO continues to assert that neither food nor packaging are known transmitters of the virus.
