Bush to launch safety review of goods imported to US

Bush to launch safety review of goods imported to US

	Published : Wed, 18 Jul 2007 15:25 By : Agencies Print this Story

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - US President George W. Bush will order the creation of a 'working group' of top aides to review the safety of imports from China and 'all around the world,' his spokesman said.

'The administration is concerned about the safety of imported products that Americans eat and use,' White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters.

Asked whether the group would target Chinese imports, Snow replied that 'Chinese imports will be included' but that the working group would look at products from 'all around the world.'

The move comes after a number of recalls of Chinese-made products and scares over the safety of food from there.

Yesterday, US lawmakers heard that the Food and Drug Administration inspects only 1 pct of all food imports and samples only a fraction of those.

The House of Representatives hearing came a day after China's state media blamed the country's food safety woes on what they called sensationalist US media reports.

'Some foreign media, especially those based in the US, have wantonly reported on so-called unsafe Chinese products. They are turning white to black,' the China Daily quoted Li Changjiang, head of the country's quality-control watchdog, as saying.

In May, US food and drug officials launched a probe in China into the source of tainted feed that killed thousands of pets in the United States and was also used to feed farm chickens and pigs.

China is the largest producer of aquacultured seafood in the world, accounting for 70 pct of the total production and 55 pct of the total value of aquacultured seafood exported around the world.

It is currently the third largest exporter of seafood to the United States, which imports about 80 pct of its seafood.

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