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© KYODOJapan ruling party lawmaker urges China to lift seafood import ban
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isabelle
This ban is just another example of why China can never, ever be trusted - on trade or anything else. It should never have been implemented, as it clearly breaks WTO rules.
See Articles 2.2 and 5:
https://www.worldtradelaw.net/document.php?id=uragreements/spsagreement.pdf&mode=download
And China has the gall to apply for CPTPP membership, where one of the requirements is "a demonstrated pattern of complying with trade commitments." It's difficult to think of a country that is less qualified than China.
Sadly, "mutual understanding" and "improved ties" are impossible whilst China constantly lies, threatens, and breaks the rules that are there in black and white.
OssanAmerica
Japan should ban seafood exports to China. On the grounds that Chinese nuclear powerplants discharge higher levels of tritium than the Fukushima plant discharges. And a international investigation of Chinese plants should be carried out.
"Scientists have pointed out that China’s own nuclear power plants release wastewater with higher levels of tritium than that found in Fukushima’s discharge, and that the levels are all within boundaries not considered to be harmful to human health."
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/25/fukushima-daiichi-nuclear-power-plant-china-wastewater-release
deanzaZZR
Trade chips. Sell fish. It is as simple as that.
Jim
If it was the other way around and China were the ones dumping nuclear waste into the sea then Japan would have been the first ones to ban all seafood from that region…. Japan and its supporters are hypocrites!
ClippetyClop
Then you'll be outraged to hear that a single Chinese nuclear plant discharges about three times as much tritium as the Fukushima release.
You must be pretty happy about Japan not banning all Chinese seafood for this, right? Rather nice of them, right?
USNinJapan2
China's ban is obviously ridiculous and bogus, but frankly if Japan's fishing industry can succeed without exports to China, I'd say let them keep their stupid ban. It only deprives Chinese people of enjoying seafood that's better than anything available domestically. Providing fine, fresh, and untainted Japanese seafood to them would be casting pearls before swine.
Agent_Neo
Even Chinese people don't buy products made in China.
Japanese people shouldn't buy products made in China either.
It'll be a repeat of the frozen dumplings.
factchecker
I'm sure the CCP will buckle to this delegations demands tout de suite.
smithinjapan
Agent Neo: "Even Chinese people don't buy products made in China.
Japanese people shouldn't buy products made in China either."
Silliest thing I've heard in a while. Every product you own, more or less, is made in China, or the parts are and/or it's assembled there. Could be your iPhone, could be your "Toshiba" air-conditioner (the newer models are made overseas and assembled in China or Vietnam). Temu, an EXTREMELY popular online shopping site in Japan, is ALL Chinese. All cashmere products in Japan are made using cashmere from China. 90% of washing machine and laptop imports come from China. Cereals, cotton, dairy products, eggs, honey, broadcasting equipment, machine parts, and a million other things... all from China.
Now, I'm not saying that has anything to do with China banning seafood products from Japan, but I'm directly responding to the ridiculous idea that Japan doesn't buy products from or made in China. And with the quality of the products increasing (green tech is miles above Japan), and prices still being low, there's a good reason why major Japanese companies can't even be found in the world's top ten.
In any case, on the grounds of safety, if the food can actually be proven safe, then perhaps China can rethink their ban. On an ethical level, Japan is treating the world's ocean as its personal toilet DESPITE being warned of the repercussions, so if China wants to keep the ban on then it's up to them. They could lift it and apply a condition -- Japan no longer dumps any nuclear waste ("treated water") into the ocean. But they won't do that, will they? So, why is China being obliged to meet Japan's requests and it will do absolutely nothing in return?
isabelle
The IAEA has stated repeatedly that the plan is "consistent with international safety standards," and that it will have a "negligible effect," and it has confirmed this via monitoring with each release for over a year. Seafood is also sampled and monitored, and TEPCO (with the IAEA's cooperation) has been raising marine organisms in the treated water to show its safety.
The WTO rules state that a ban on safety must be "based on scientific principles and is not maintained without sufficient scientific evidence." There is zero scientific basis for China's ban. It is purely political.
Furthermore, this monitoring framework that China has recently (apparently) agreed to was offered by Japan over a year ago. China refused, for the sole reason of practicing economic coercion for the past year (again, in clear violation of WTO rules).
Japan's plan has been validated by the IAEA, and all monitoring so far has shown no problems.
Not when the ban violates WTO rules, per the above.
The treated water has been repeatedly shown to be safe by the IAEA.
And, as mentioned by ClippetyClop above, China releases far worse. It doesn't ban its own seafood, does it?
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2024/03/d7a70def8245-chinas-nuclear-plants-released-tritium-above-fukushima-level-in-2022.html
China is obliged to meet WTO rules, which it willingly signed up to. Nothing more, nothing less.
JJE
Almost like some are pretending Tokyo has never ever imposed import restrictions.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Peter Neil
once you understand that sino-any country politics are an illusion, you can spend less time typing. and enjoying more fish.
elephant200
Japan can sell their fishery stuffs to India or the Philippines !
elephant200
Concern Japanese expatriates in China has grown since the fatal stabbing...
China is a lawful country with a good judiciary system,a professional police force. Any violence were not tolerated for whatever people and whatever reasons. I think the Japanese should aware the safety of their own country especially the Okinawa prefecture due to a large and unstable garrison over there !
elephant200
@USNJapan2 If Japan's fishing industry can succeed without exports to China.
There is no "IF" the fact is China being the biggest market for Japanese fishery products. The Japanese can try exporting those stuffs to India. That country has a very serious hunger problems ranking almost the bottom of world hunger index !
elephant200
Scientists have pointed out that China nuclear power plants release wastewater with higher levels of tritium than that Fukushima’s discharge
No! Big difference , the Japanese wastewater were those have been contacted and submerged with that strickened reactor. The Chinese waste water never contactes or submerged in the core of nuclear reactor, just pure coolant water that's why is very safe !
lostrune2
We trust Japanese-borne food more than Chinese-borne food anyways. Don't forget all those tainted food fiascos in China like the nitrate-contaminated infant milk that even Chinese mothers en-masse refused to buy any Chinese milk but instead turned to Japanese milk
No, any nuclear plant coolant water is considered contaminated and needs to be treated if it ever needs to be released to the environment. But nuclear plants don't typically release coolant water (it's recirculated in a closed loop - it'd be prohibitively wasteful otherwise)
Nevertheless, any coolant water can be treated to make it safe. After all, that's what they do when nuclear power plants are decommissioned and shut down - they don't store the water forever:
https://www.membracon.co.uk/blog/nuclear-power-and-water-consumption/
Agent_Neo
When I hear that the quality of Chinese products is improving, I wonder what this all means.
It's true that there are plenty of made-in-China products out there, but I tend to avoid food made in China in particular.
And when it comes to life-threatening parts like cars and trains, you can't trust anything made in China.
And the claim that Japanese food is dangerous is just another baseless accusation from China, as there is no evidence, just like with history.
In America, a large part of the deficit is Chinese products, and they are the cause of economic friction, so it will be interesting to see what kind of sanctions Trump will impose.
ClippetyClop
Maybe not food, but Kobayashi Pharma killed about 80 people and hospitalized another 500 or so in the last couple of years with their yeast supplements. Painful deaths too.
It was all over the news n stuff.
The regulations here aren't as good as you think they are.
Agent_Neo
In China, even if 100 times as many people died as Kobayashi Pharmaceutical's victims, it wouldn't even make the news. Because that's commonplace lol.
Sewage oil, plastic rice, cardboard dumplings, high-concentration pesticides.
How many people have had their lives cut short so far?
Poisonous air, poisonous food, poisonous government. Nothing is harmless.