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Summary for September 17 - September 21, 2007:

Monday, September 17, 2007PENSIVE

Northwest Concept Cuisine in NYC

ORLANDO, Fla. - More than 80 percent of the seafood that Americans eat comes from abroad, but the federal government's underfunded and overwhelmed food-safety system has been especially inept at intercepting contaminated imports. This summer, for example, state regulators in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana found banned antibiotics when they tested imported seafood that had cleared U.S. ports.

 While Congress needs to bolster federal food-safety agencies with more money, manpower and authority, it also needs to empower consumers with more information.

 Federal law requires that seafood sold in grocery stores be labeled by its country of origin, but there is no corresponding requirement for fish served in restaurants. Congress has a good opportunity to begin moving in that direction by passing a bill that would require country-of-origin labeling for restaurant catfish.

 It makes sense to start with catfish, because most of it is consumed in restaurants. Despite its reputation as an American fish, a third of the U.S. catfish supply comes from overseas. Much of it is from China, where polluted conditions lead many fish farmers to use antibiotics and other drugs and chemicals banned in the U.S.

 Labeling catfish in restaurants will better protect consumers and send a strong signal to fish farmers to clean up their act. Those benefits outweigh whatever cost or complications labeling presents.

 Federal agencies need to do a much better job screening seafood and other imports. Meanwhile, consumers need all the tools they can get to protect themselves.

- The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel

FDA Lenient on Asian Seafood Imports

WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration responded to jitters over Chinese imports recently by banning some of that country's seafood because of contaminants, but the agency has failed to apply the same standard to seafood supplied from other large exporters that use the same chemicals and fish-farming techniques.

 Imports from Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, for instance, have continued apace, even though fish-farming techniques in those countries are similar to those cited by the FDA when it issued an import alert in June targeting Chinese fish.

 While FDA regulators focus on China, Vietnam, in particular, has been cited by other countries for the use of antibiotics and other chemicals in its fish-farming ponds - the same substances that were cited by the FDA in its "import alert" regarding certain Chinese seafood, such as shrimp and catfish. Japan and the European Union have recently raised concerns about the use of banned antibiotics in Vietnamese fish farms.

 The FDA recently issued special import alerts for Asian seafood companies similar to the one issued for all of China. The alerts require the companies to prove, through lab tests, that their products are safe.

 FDA records show that only a fraction of the seafood imported annually is halted and rejected by FDA inspectors. Overall, the FDA inspects less than 1 percent of all food and drug imports each year.

 When it comes to seafood, the FDA focuses on countries and companies that are known to provide contaminated fish, according to Donald Kraemer, deputy director of the agency's Office of Food Safety. That targeted approach, he said, led to the Chinese import alert and consideration of a similar ban against Vietnam several years ago.

 Chet Trirat, assistant to the minister of commercial at the Thai Embassy in Washington, said the use of antibiotics in fish farming in Thailand is strictly controlled.

 Yet FDA records show that inspectors denied entry to 203 Thai seafood products through August of this year.

 Typical causes included salmonella and products that inspectors found were "filthy."

 The popularity of seafood in the U.S. and Europe has prompted countries like China, Vietnam and Thailand to promote the production of fish, especially shrimp, the most popular seafood in America. In the rush to snare this trade, consumer groups argue, food safety is a secondary concern.

 The ponds used to raise fish, they contend, often use dirty water. Farmers, intent on increasing yields, use feed laced with antibiotics that prevent the spread of illness among shrimp and fish that are packed into small enclosures.

 The FDA's Kraemer said he works with countries like Vietnam to emphasize the need for tighter health controls. The result, Kraemer said, has been a "success story."

 But other countries are more concerned about the safety of Vietnamese seafood, including Japan and the European Union, the governing health body for 27 European countries.

 After Japan threatened a ban on shrimp imports last year because of concerns over antibiotic use, Vietnam pledged to eliminate the use of antibiotics.

 A skeptical Japan, however, has continued to inspect 100 percent of its Vietnamese shrimp imports. Those inspections, which began in 2006, have found banned antibiotics in Vietnamese seafood.

– Baltimore Sun

Tijuana's Negai "Supermodel" of Sushi Eateries

TIJUANA, Mexico - In a land where most outsiders are preprogrammed to fear drinking the water, let alone sinking their teeth into something that hasn't passed through a flame four or five times, going out for sushi may sound questionable even to the most adventurous diner.

 Tijuana dining, however, is more multifarious than the blur of no-tell taquerias many Americans are used to bypassing on their mad rush back to the border.

 Meet Negai, the supermodel of sushi restaurants, where you don't know whether to take a peek at the menu, inquire about needing a reservation or suck in your cheeks and sashay to the farthest corner and back.

 A quick visual lap around the interior - a quiet compilation of wood, water, glass and stone - keeps your attention as you strut down the center catwalk toward your table, one of only 15 or so, where a napkin falls in your lap and a waiter asks for your drink order.

 Beer? Wine? Tamarind martini? Sake, you say. Chilled, unfiltered. The milk of adult beverages.

 The ooh-la-la assessment continues while you wait for your wooden box of cloudy rice wine, soaking up all the details. A glass-paneled mural, an abstract interpretation of a bamboo-lined rock garden, splits the space in two. Sepia shots of Tokyo adorn the sage-colored walls. A waterfall trickling down a slab of slate serves as a backdrop for the sushi chefs.

 Strips of layered wood frame white laminate tabletops, separating them from the puzzle of white tiles that make up the floor. Mod dome lights dangle from warehouse-grade rafters. You're two blinks away from believing you have stepped into a Modern Living photo shoot before remembering you're here to eat, not gawk.

 Negai's menu, whose official theme is "Japanese fusion," welds the Land of the Rising Sun's staples with Baja accents. That equates to jalapeno slivers atop sashimi, bits of cilantro floating in ponzu sauce, and tamarind or mango sauce drizzled over most dishes.

 The sushi bar is filled with fish caught off the coast of Ensenada, a stock so vibrant it deserves Crayola-worthy names like ruby-red tuna, sunset-orange salmon and rosy-cheek-pink yellowtail. The seafood is so tender that the only preparation for swallowing involves pressing your tongue against the roof of your mouth.

 For those leery of biting into uncooked sea life, no matter how fresh, the options include hot plates of the teriyaki and teppanyaki sort, too.

 If you prefer to avoid an on-the-spot Spanish lesson, ask the waiter what he recommends. The plates that follow likely will include the Crepa Roll (above left, 90 pesos, or about $9) - shrimp and spicy crab packed into a warm spinach-infused crepe, sliced and topped with mango sauce; Sashimi Negai (above right, 120 pesos, roughly $12) - finger-sized bits of crab and avocado wrapped with tuna or salmon sashimi; and the Cascada Roll (90 pesos) - shrimp tempura, mint, cilantro, pepper and mango, wrapped in soy paper and spiked with mango sauce.

 About a 10-minute trip from the border, Negai sits just north of the Grand Hotel's twin towers off Boulevard Agua Caliente at Calle Escuadron 201. As your back tires roll over that last speed bump and into Mexico, keep in mind that what lies ahead is worth every pothole you'll swerve to avoid, every congested roundabout you'll brave and every single you'll shell out to soak your sashimi and sip your sake to the tune of a live mariachi serenade.

– San Diego Union-Tribune

Import Safety Should Start with Fish

ORLANDO, Fla. - More than 80 percent of the seafood that Americans eat comes from abroad, but the federal government's underfunded and overwhelmed food-safety system has been especially inept at intercepting contaminated imports. This summer, for example, state regulators in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana found banned antibiotics when they tested imported seafood that had cleared U.S. ports.

 While Congress needs to bolster federal food-safety agencies with more money, manpower and authority, it also needs to empower consumers with more information.

 Federal law requires that seafood sold in grocery stores be labeled by its country of origin, but there is no corresponding requirement for fish served in restaurants. Congress has a good opportunity to begin moving in that direction by passing a bill that would require country-of-origin labeling for restaurant catfish.

 It makes sense to start with catfish, because most of it is consumed in restaurants. Despite its reputation as an American fish, a third of the U.S. catfish supply comes from overseas. Much of it is from China, where polluted conditions lead many fish farmers to use antibiotics and other drugs and chemicals banned in the U.S.

 Labeling catfish in restaurants will better protect consumers and send a strong signal to fish farmers to clean up their act. Those benefits outweigh whatever cost or complications labeling presents.

 Federal agencies need to do a much better job screening seafood and other imports. Meanwhile, consumers need all the tools they can get to protect themselves.

- The Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel

<<<•>>>

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Fish Markets Decline During RamadanEXPENSIVE

Saudi Arabia - Ramadan is never good for fishmongers and this year isn’t any different. Vendors at Saudi fish markets have been bracing for the seasonal dip in sales, attributed to the usual rise in demand for ground lamb, which is used as an ingredient in traditional treats like sambousas and shourba.

 Mohammed Alhaji, manager of Tabuk Fish Co., estimates that sales will fall between 15 and 35 percent during the holy month of fasting.

 “The decline will be smaller in the coastal region because meals there tend to have more seafood than in the interior,” he said, adding that there is a common misconception that seafood exacerbates dehydration, leading some people to avoid it during the fasting days.

 Oddly, the decline in demand doesn’t seem to affect retail prices. Like everything else, seafood prices are also increasing. For example, a kilogram of shrimp or tuna in Jeddah usually retails for about SR20, but with the advent of Ramadan it rose to as high as SR35.

 Musaad Alfayez, a seafood purveyor, said that Ramadan coinciding with summer usually makes things worse because this is the time of year when certain species of marketable fish are caught off the western coast of the Kingdom.

 Alfayez explained that big seafood companies with massive cold-storage facilities can freeze away stock until after Ramadan, but smaller producers without the warehousing convenience must turn over their stock as soon as possible. “Not all companies are well equipped with these storage potentialities,” he said.

 Khalifah Alswaileh, fish seller at the Qatif fish market, said that the dip tends to slowly recover as Ramadan comes to an end.

“Families start wanting new dishes to serve so they turn to seafood instead of red meat,” he said.

 This shift back to seafood may have other reasons, he added. People who have let their diets go for the holy month start looking for healthier low-fat alternatives, like grilled fish.

 “This is especially true with those who have health problems such as high cholesterol and diabetes and have forgotten to watch their eating habits during Ramadan,” he said.

– Arab News

How to Judge Haddock

Mike Coffill is the head haddock cutter at Ready Lobster on Hobson’s Wharf in Portland, Maine.

 It is the quality of the haddock fillets he cuts that allows Coffill to charge more than his competitors. But no amount of skilled cutting will turn a bad fish into a good fillet. It is critical to choose only the best fish in the first place, and that depends a lot on how quickly the boat gets the fish chilled in ice.

How to tell if a fish has been in the heat too long? Smell. "It makes a difference," Coffill explains.

 "It gives off that fishy smell. But as far as it looks on the outside it looks great." That's why Coffill inspects the fish before buying it, both with his eyes and his nose.

Some fishing boats, Coffill says, are better at taking care of their fish than others. But while he tends to work with boats with good track records, Coffill also has worked with a few owners and captains to improve how they handle the fish.

 "I was buying fish off one guy," says Coffill, "and they look great, but once you cut 'em open they'd been heated up. They'd left 'em out on the deck for too long."

When the owner saw that Coffill was paying 90 cents a pound for his fish, but was paying $1.60 at auction for higher quality stuff from other boats, he wanted to know why. Coffill explained what needed to be done to ensure quality by the time the fish reached the dock, and says the response was quick: "And then he's like, 'Jesus, if I can get that [price], I will, I'll do it,'" he says.

– Maine Biz

PETA Goes After Red Lobster Owner

ORLANDO, Fla. - Chicken and fish were on the minds of two activist speakers at Darden Restaurants Inc.'s annual shareholders' meeting -- the catching and killing of them, not the eating of them.

 Orlando-based Darden is the parent company of Olive Garden, Red Lobster, Smokey Bones and other restaurant chains.

Steven Gross, a consultant for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said he is "cautiously optimistic" after meeting with a Darden official to discuss the company's policy on processing chickens.

 Gross, representing PETA, made a statement Friday at the company's annual shareholders' meeting in Orlando, and also met privately with Bob McAdams, the company's senior vice president for government and community affairs.

 PETA wants Darden to push its suppliers to use what PETA contends are more humane methods to slaughter chickens.

 McAdams has said the company wants to study the "science" of which method is best before considering any changes.

Also speaking at the annual meeting was Dana Marmorstein, chief executive officer of the group harpseal.org, which seeks to protect seals from hunting in Canada.

 Marmorstein urged Darden to stop buying seafood from Canada, as part of her group's boycott of Canadian seafood.

Her organization believes Darden is among the largest purchasers of Canadian seafood, and participation in a boycott of Canadian seafood could increase the pressure on Canadian fishing interests to end seal hunting there.

 Marmorstein owns one share of Darden stock and PETA owns 80 shares, giving the activists access to speak at the company's annual shareholders' meeting.

– Florida Today

Fishermen Fishing for You Face New Regs

BOSTON — Fishermen catch fish. At least, Robert St. Pierre thought that was his job, but years of working under restrictive and complicated federal rules made him wonder.

 Daily catch limits on protected species such as cod were so low, he had to be careful not to catch too many fish too fast. Once he reached the 1,000-pound limit, he had to stop fishing for everything else, and any cod caught over the limit were thrown back dead.

 But now, St. Pierre fishes differently by working in one of the so-called "sectors" that are bringing profound change to how the troubled New England fishery is run.

 Under the new system, fishermen form groups that have annual catch limits and decide together when and how to fish. This system frees them from hated current restrictions, including a shrinking number of days they're allowed to fish and daily catch limits.

 When the market is down, St. Pierre doesn't fish. When it's good, the hunt is on. He can pull up a huge cod catch without tossing most of it back.

 "It's been the first good fishing experience I've had in a long time," said St. Pierre, 50, a gillnetter from Chatham, Mass.

 By May 2009, regulators plan to have "sector management" widely in place. Nineteen groups have applied to become sectors to the New England Fishery Management Council, which recommends rule changes to federal regulators.

 Not all the fishermen are convinced.

 The current system tries to protect fish by making it harder for fishermen to catch them. But after about 13 years under those rules, key species such as cod and flounder are still struggling. The New England fishing fleet has steadily shrunk — the number of boats fell from 990 to 773 between 1996 and 2004. And some fisherman are allowed to fish just 24 days a year.

Environmentalists have long argued the current system has failed to stop overfishing because it lacks the strict annual quotas that force fishermen to stop fishing for a species once the quota is exceeded.

 The new sector system will have an annual quota, and by distributing the quotas to the groups, rather than individual fishermen, it lessens fears that the industry is being broken into small pieces that can be easily swept up and consolidated by big companies.

 It also gives fishermen a chance to share resources, as well as the flexibility to make quick decisions based on weather or the market without getting tangled in so much red tape.

 "As long as you're meeting your quota, you're pretty much honoring your promise to the government," said Vito Giacalone of the Northeast Seafood Coalition, an industry group that supports the new system.

 Fishermen can join together for various reasons — they don't have to fish in the same area or use the same gear. Two sectors have already been established — St. Pierre's group and another for hook fishermen targeting cod in Chatham.

 Dividing the entire New England fishery will be far more complicated, and controversial. Each fisherman will be allotted a certain amount of fish, and their allotments will combine to make a sector's quota.

 The sectors also will come with administrative costs for fishermen. Each sector will need to hire someone to manage it, and St. Pierre said more on-boat observers are essential to make sure catch reports are accurate.

- Portsmouth Herald News, New Hampshire

China Promises Cooperative Safety Standards

China will work with the United States to ensure the safety of exported toys and other goods, a top Chinese official said, but Beijing still insists it is not solely to blame in recent safety scandals.

Wei Chuanzhong, vice minister of China's General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), said the lengthy talks with U.S. agencies in Washington this week were productive.

"Through sincere and close cooperation between our two countries, the U.S. consumers could get more and more Chinese products with high quality," Wei told reporters.

Chinese and U.S. officials will meet again this fall as they prepare two agriculture and environment agreements they hope to sign during an economic summit in Beijing in December.

Wei pointed to a litany of steps China has taken against tainted or unsafe pet food, toys, toothpaste and fish, like blacklisting unscrupulous firms and a new English-language Web site on product safety, but he gave few details on steps the two nations would take together to head off future problems.

But after meetings with health, agriculture, environment and other officials here, including a brief discussion with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, China still sees threats of "trade protectionism," and puts much of the onus for keeping consumers safe on the U.S. government and private sector.

The lion's share of Chinese-made toys recalled in recent weeks were unsafely designed by companies such as Mattel Inc, Wei said, suggesting that only 15 percent of recalled toys were corrupted by Chinese firms' use of lead paint.

China also stresses that it is not alone in struggling to regulate surging exports. In recent weeks, Beijing has complained of dangerous or subpar shipments from the United States, from potato chips to homing pigeons.

Wei said melamine, a dangerous chemical that turned up earlier this year in pet food shipments to the United States, had been found in China's imports from Australia and Peru.

Wei also sees conflicting regulations as another obstacle. The United States allows a drug called ractopamine to be used to grow more lean hogs but the drug is banned in China. It's the opposite situation with an antibiotic common in Chinese seafood farming, he said.

The recent safety scares linked to Chinese goods have added another wrinkle to the two countries' valuable, but complex, trade relationship.

With China posting a massive trade surplus with the United States -- $233 billion last year -- many lawmakers here are stepping up the pressure for Beijing to reform its currency.

This week, Wei also met with Sen. Dick Durbin, who is one of Congress' most outspoken advocates of reforming U.S. safety rules, increasing funding for the meagerly staffed Consumer Product Safety Commission, for instance.

Beijing has invited Durbin to China to clear up what Wei saw as "prejudice" and "misunderstanding" in their hour-long meeting. A Durbin aide, suggesting the senator will reserve judgment on China's pledges to clean up past mistakes, said the Illinois Democrat had not decided if he would accept.

The Bush administration is now sketching out its own reform plan. A special import safety panel is due to present President George W. Bush with specific suggestions in November.

Administration officials stress they cannot inspect every product imported into the United States. Annual imports now total $2 trillion.

– International Business Times

<<<•>>>

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Odd-named Fish Attracts Big BucksEXPENSIVE

ROTORUA, New Zealand – Lovers of that essentially West Coast (New Zealand) delicacy, whitebait, are having to reach deep into their pockets after the slowest start to the season in two years.

 Retail prices in Christchurch have reached $150 (NZ) a kilogram (or $239 U.S. per pound) -- if you can find any -- but connoisseurs of the tiny translucent delight are prepared to pay a premium, fish retailers say.

 The high prices are being blamed on poor catches on the West Coast since the season opened on September 1, but expert fishers say all will come right next month.

 "There's not a lot around," West Coast Whitebaiters Association president Jim Bushby said. "Rivers have been dirty for the last four or five days, which wouldn't help. It's been a fairly cold spring here and the water's still fairly cold. But tides are coming right and next month should see a bit of action, hopefully."

 Bushby said "good rain" over the past three or four days would have "got rid of a bit of snow up the back" and freshened the main whitebaiting rivers.

 Cascade Whitebait, of Christchurch - New Zealand's main wholesale supplier - puts the scarcity down to a late season.

 "It's the slowest start for a couple of seasons, but we're hoping it will pick up in the next couple of weeks," marketing manager Neville Cane said.

 An informal survey of Christchurch retailers yesterday showed that prices were averaging $120 a kilogram - or $12 per 100g.

 One retailer reported sales at $150 a kilo last week, but was out of stock yesterday.

 A spokesman for the City Seafood Market said his market had turned down wholesale prices of between $85 and $95 a kilo plus GST, and would wait for a more plentiful supply and prices to fall.

– New Zealand Herald

 (According to Wikipedia, the New Zealand whitebait is a small, sweet and tender fish that looks like a smelt with a delicate taste that is easily over-powered if mixed with stronger ingredients when cooked. The most popular way of cooking whitebait in New Zealand is the whitebait fritter, which is essentially an omelette containing whitebait. Purists use only the egg white in order to minimise interfering with the taste of the bait. Foreigners frequently react with revulsion when shown uncooked whitebait, which resembles slimy, translucent worms.)

Firm Pays $50,000 for Undersized Crab

BALTIMORE — A Crisfield company pleaded guilty to selling illegal, undersized crabs from the Chesapeake Bay in interstate commerce, the U.S. Attorney's office announced.

 MeTompkin Bay Oyster Co. was fined $50,000 for violating the Lacey Act, U.S. officials said. The act bars the interstate sale of fish or wildlife knowingly taken or possessed in violation of state law.

 According to a joint statement of facts given to U.S. District Court in Baltimore, an investigation began when the government obtained information that crabbers from Tangier Island, Va. were selling soft-shell blue crabs from the Bay to seafood dealers in Crisfield, including MeTompkin. Many of the crabs were smaller than 3 1/2 inches long, in violation of Maryland law.

 Three times in 2005 and 2006, agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and an officer from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources bought about $1,500 worth of undersized crabs from MeTompkin.

 The company warehouse was later searched and some 3,274 dozen undersized crabs were seized, valued at about $26,000.

MeTompkin agreed to forfeit the undersized crabs seized.

– Houston Chronicle

Disgruntled Workers Take Protest to Customer

NEW YORK – The workers who filed a class action lawsuit against Wild Edibles, a high-end seafood retail and wholesale company, didn’t hold their press conference at the company’s Long Island City warehouse or one of its three retail locations. Instead, they stood in front of Pastis — Keith McNally’s fashionable French restaurant.

 Pastis, the workers say, is one of Wild Edibles’ big customers. They allege Wild Edibles systematically denied overtime pay and, when workers tried to assert their rights, they faced retaliation.

 Pedro Hernandez, who cleans and weighs fish and oversees oysters, has worked at the warehouse for nearly a year and earns $450 a week for the 56 hours he puts in.

 “They make us work a lot, at least three hours above the eight-hour day,” Hernandez said through a translator. “We were told we would get a raise after three months, but that never happened.”

 Brandworkers International, a new nonprofit workers’ rights group, along with Industrial Workers of the World IU460-640, organized the rally to raise awareness for their campaign to improve conditions for the low-wage jobs held mainly by immigrant workers at warehouses in Brooklyn and Queens.

 Workers at 10 city food warehouses have joined the IWW. Four from Wild Edibles who tried to unionize with IU460-640 were fired, workers alleged.

 Representatives from Wild Edibles and Pastis declined comment.

 Daniel Gross, co-founder of Brandworkers, hoped passers-by got the message.

 “Focus on the food chain,” he said. “Consider what’s on your plate. One step before that tuna hits it, workers at Wild Edibles and elsewhere are working in shameful and deplorable conditions.” 

- Metro New York

South Seas Leaders Signed Coral Protection Pact

LOS ANGELES - The President of Palau, Tommy Esang Remengesau, Jr. and his two Pacific island nation counterparts, Emanual Mori, the President of the Federated States of Micronesia, and Kessai Note, President of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, signed the International Declaration of Reef Rights at the 7th Micronesia Presidents' Summit on September 5, 2007 in the State of Chuuk (formerly Truk).

 The Declaration of Reef Rights was created by Los Angeles-based Reef Check Foundation to raise awareness about the value of coral reefs and the threats they face as well as to encourage people "to take the pledge" to help coral reef conservation and to stop activities that can damage reefs. Signers pledge to take nine practical actions that will help coral reefs such as requesting sustainable seafood at restaurants and markets, supporting environmentally friendly tourist operators and helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

 Annual surveys by Reef Check for the past 10 years indicate that coral reefs are in serious decline in many areas with 20 percent lost over the past 20 years and another 24 percent in jeopardy. Global warming increasingly threatens the long-term health of reefs.

 According to Dr. Gregor Hodgson, Reef Check Executive Director, "Unfortunately, the coral reefs that many of us knew when we started scuba diving are no longer intact. The world is facing a worsening global coral reef crisis. The good news is that this damage is caused by human activities and is reversible. We are winning many battles to save reefs."

 The Presidents, along with previous notable signatories such as marine biologist Dr. Sylvia Earle and environmental activist Daryl Hannah are encouraging other global leaders to learn more about the coral reef crisis and to sign the declaration online at reefcheck.org. Citizens from over 110 countries have already joined in this campaign.

– Press release

China Promises Cooperative Safety Standards

China will work with the United States to ensure the safety of exported toys and other goods, a top Chinese official said, but Beijing still insists it is not solely to blame in recent safety scandals.

Wei Chuanzhong, vice minister of China's General Administration for Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), said the lengthy talks with U.S. agencies in Washington this week were productive.

"Through sincere and close cooperation between our two countries, the U.S. consumers could get more and more Chinese products with high quality," Wei told reporters.

Chinese and U.S. officials will meet again this fall as they prepare two agriculture and environment agreements they hope to sign during an economic summit in Beijing in December.

Wei pointed to a litany of steps China has taken against tainted or unsafe pet food, toys, toothpaste and fish, like blacklisting unscrupulous firms and a new English-language Web site on product safety, but he gave few details on steps the two nations would take together to head off future problems.

But after meetings with health, agriculture, environment and other officials here, including a brief discussion with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, China still sees threats of "trade protectionism," and puts much of the onus for keeping consumers safe on the U.S. government and private sector.

The lion's share of Chinese-made toys recalled in recent weeks were unsafely designed by companies such as Mattel Inc, Wei said, suggesting that only 15 percent of recalled toys were corrupted by Chinese firms' use of lead paint.

China also stresses that it is not alone in struggling to regulate surging exports. In recent weeks, Beijing has complained of dangerous or subpar shipments from the United States, from potato chips to homing pigeons.

Wei said melamine, a dangerous chemical that turned up earlier this year in pet food shipments to the United States, had been found in China's imports from Australia and Peru.

Wei also sees conflicting regulations as another obstacle. The United States allows a drug called ractopamine to be used to grow more lean hogs but the drug is banned in China. It's the opposite situation with an antibiotic common in Chinese seafood farming, he said.

The recent safety scares linked to Chinese goods have added another wrinkle to the two countries' valuable, but complex, trade relationship.

With China posting a massive trade surplus with the United States -- $233 billion last year -- many lawmakers here are stepping up the pressure for Beijing to reform its currency.

This week, Wei also met with Sen. Dick Durbin, who is one of Congress' most outspoken advocates of reforming U.S. safety rules, increasing funding for the meagerly staffed Consumer Product Safety Commission, for instance.

Beijing has invited Durbin to China to clear up what Wei saw as "prejudice" and "misunderstanding" in their hour-long meeting. A Durbin aide, suggesting the senator will reserve judgment on China's pledges to clean up past mistakes, said the Illinois Democrat had not decided if he would accept.

The Bush administration is now sketching out its own reform plan. A special import safety panel is due to present President George W. Bush with specific suggestions in November.

Administration officials stress they cannot inspect every product imported into the United States. Annual imports now total $2 trillion.

– International Business Times

<<<•>>>

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Scientific leaders join forces to save wild B.C. salmon stocksEXPENSIVE

(This also appeared in our Fish Wrap service.)

VANCOUVER — Sea lice from fish farms are and will continue to be lethal to wild salmon stocks unless immediate action is taken, 18 scientists and researchers said Tuesday.

 The scientists, ranging from David Suzuki to National Geographic Society explorer-in-residence Wade Davis, have signed an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Gordon Campbell to put the debate over the role of sea lice in the deaths of juvenile wild salmon to rest.

 There is not a single piece of evidence to the contrary, the letter read. Sea lice from fish farms kill juvenile wild salmon, threatening the future of a species vital to life throughout the north Pacific.

 Since farmed salmon don't move or travel as much as wild fish, diseases and infestations like sea lice multiply much faster. Wild salmon moving through fish farm areas are then much more likely to contract fatal infections.

 The open letter calls for immediate barriers between wild and farmed salmon and says closed containment of fish farms, not the current open pen system, is the only safeguard.

 A federal fisheries official said the government is still investigating how to handle the sea lice scourge but there is no open-and-shut solution.

 &