9 ]9 M# _% a" {7 KBEIJING'S SEIZURE OF US FOOD SEEN AS RETALIATION, L; y/ F: Y6 Q# F- V+ y* e
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China has impounded two shipments of food from the US on the grounds that the produce is unsafe and warned that procedures for monitoring American food imports should be tightened., ~9 N+ d; o9 G. B
1 G! Y6 J# n0 N# N2 B8 FGovernment inspectors seized separate shipments of orange pulp and apricots from the US because they contained excessive bacteria and mould, China's food safety inspectorate said yesterday on its website. . }& b: M5 P: |) N, _1 e& z1 M( a5 k
Coming on the back of a series of scandals in the US over the quality of imported goods from China, the announcement will be considered by many importers as a form of retaliation by the Chinese authorities.; }% E4 l5 b. ~# p3 E/ R8 i
2 T. ]8 D0 x9 B, z: ?* `. KThe statement comes one day after regulators in the US announced a recall of up to 450,000 tyres manufactured by a Chinese company because of a potentially dangerous safety problem. % M/ [9 I* ]* u1 S8 T- X- G L1 B3 I" ^5 G- ]+ l5 ]- D8 c9 lChina's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said it had impounded the orange pulp in the eastern province of Shandong and the apricots were seized in Shenzhen. 1 Z8 f5 Q5 H3 J o u, A1 C7 J; j2 \0 t* {
The shipments contained “excessive bacteria, mould and sulphur dioxide”, the agency said, but gave no details about when they were impounded or how big the shipments were. + L. P2 Z% o- U3 g8 R 8 \9 A" `8 D" x/ s9 g9 P; M/ wThe agency's statement said local departments had been advised to “strengthen quarantine and inspections on food imports from America”.9 R M3 b; ?) p4 W4 q# v
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An executive at a European trading company based in Shanghai said: “We cannot say anything for sure without seeing details about the shipments, but it certainly looks like a way of deflecting some of the attention away from China and its own quality problems.”: `; i, S# {# L$ m N3 ]: F( \
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The US government's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced on Monday the recall of tyres sold by Foreign Tire Sales, a New Jersey distributor, which are used in vans, sports utility vehicles and pick-up trucks. ( S: X. X8 c5 [2 G# i# V# U; G) E : G- K- ~* B) }6 q, P8 A% [The tyres, made by a Chinese company called Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber, lacked a gum strip that helps strengthen the tyre and prevent tread separation – the problem that caused a massive recall of Firestone tyres in the US in 2000. Officials at Hangzhou Zhongce could not be reached for comment yesterday.2 V0 ]. E% Q) A: l' K* v; N' ]
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