General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ)

July 20, 2007

I. Drug Poisoning Accident in Panama and Investigation and Settling Result

The investigation and the general fact of the drug poisoning accident in Panama have already been released here on 31st May by the Joint Investigation Team. The Glycerin Factory of Taixing City was the manufacturer of that TD-glycerin. Its workshop and facilities have been closed down by the Jiangsu Province and its business license revoked. The quality supervision authority cancelled the record of enterprise standard of TD-glycerin of the enterprise and forbids it to produce this product from now on.

II. The Unlawful Facts and Settling Results of the Two Enterprises Exporting Pet Food to US

1. The Xuzhou Anying Biotechnology Development Company in Jiangsu province unlawfully added melamine in some of its products which could not meet the protein content requirement set in the contract. This behavior of adulteration severely violated the feed quality and safety standard. Moreover, it declared to the customs using the non-statutory commodity tariff number of the Suzhou Silk Import and Export Corporation and escaped from inspection and quarantine. Since its establishment in July 2006, the company has totally exported to US 1,033.4 tons of wheat protein in 14 batches through the Suzhou Silk Import and Export Corporation and its products created severe negative impact in US.

Jointly working with the competent department of the local government, AQSIQ imposed punishment on the company: its business license was revoked, its import and export freedom was cancelled, its website was closed down, its offices and workshops were sealed up, and, its production, sale and export were stopped. The local public security department has started legal investigation into the case, and the suspected major personnel in charge were arrested. The case is being handled according to the juridical procedure.

2. The Binzhou Futian Biotechnology Co. Ltd in Shandong province added melamine in some of its products which could not meet the protein content requirement set in the contract, constituting severe adulteration. It used non-statutory commodity tariff number to escape from inspection and quarantine. Since 15th June 2006, the company has exported 336 tons of rice protein by 8 batches and 24 tons of corn protein of 1 batch to US, as well as some products to South Africa and Switzerland. AQSIQ worked jointly with the local government to have imposed punishment to the company: its business license was revoked, its import and export freedom was cancelled, its website was closed down, its offices and workshops were sealed up, and, its production, sale and export were stopped. The local public security department has started legal investigation into the case, and the suspected major personnel in charge were arrested. The case is being handled according to the juridical procedure.

III. Investigation Result of the Zhongce Tyre Case

Recently, the US media reported that the Chinese tyres made by Zhongce had quality defect and caused a fatal traffic accident in US. After subtle investigation and verifications by various parties, the true fact is as follows:

1. The Hangzhou Zhongce Rubber Co. Ltd investigated into the accident and found that both the report of the US trading agent (FTS) and the following reports of the US media are untruthful. On 2nd July, FTS submitted to NHTSA the Supplement and Revision to the Report on Safety Defect, in which it said that after it was allowed to observe the vehicle and the tyres of the accident, it found the vehicle used 3 Westlake tyres made by Zhongce of Size 245/75R16 and a Michelin tyre of size 225/75R16, while the correct tyre size should be 225/75R16. Therefore it could not be determined whether no tie-in strip on the belt caused or impacted the accident. At the same time, the report pointed out that the quality of the Zhongce tyres involved met and even exceeded the requirement of the US Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). The vehicle in the accident was equipped with 4 tyres of different diameters and widths (the apparent diameters of the two sized tyres have 30mm difference). The Zhongce and the Michelin tyres were installed on the same drive shaft, i.e. two different sized tyres on the same shaft. The real cause of the accident should be severe misuse of tyres.

2. AQSIQ re-organized the sampling of the Zhongce US-exported tyres of the same size and the testing was conducted by the professional tyre testing laboratory according to the US standard. The result showed that all the testing indexes fully met the requirements of the US safety standards.

IV. Results of Investigation on the Ceramic Cooking Pot Case in Japan

In May this year, Japanese reports claimed that ceramic cooking pots imported from China were detected to contain harmful lead. It is learned that the ceramic pots were from Jingdezhen Jiabao Ceramics Company, Jiangxi Province. AQSIQ immediately organized field investigation which led to the following verification:

• No problems were found in the on-the-spot testing.

The investigation team took samples from the same kind of product of the company and sent them to lab-test. The testing results show that the contents of lead are all below the requirement in both the Chinese national standards (the maximum limit is 3.0mg/L) and the Japanese laws and regulations on food safety (the maximum limit is 2.5mg/L). There is no problem of quality, safety or sanitation.

• No problems were found in the test by Japan either.

After the incident, Japanese Consumers' Association asked three Japanese inspection organizations to conduct statutory inspection again on the imported Chinese-made ceramic pots, the results of which were all below the 2.5mg/L requirement in Japanese laws and regulations on food and sanitation. The actual testing result was only 1.3mg/L.

• All ceramic pots of the company exported to Japan receive strict pre-export inspection.

Every batch of ceramic pots of the company exported to Japan receive strict pre-export inspection by the Jingdezhen Ceramics Inspection Center, which shows that the lead contents in all the products are within 0.0-1.0 mg/L, in compliance with the permissible limits of Chinese national standards and Japanese food hygiene regulations. The investigation team considered that the untruthful media reports pushed the Chinese ceramic pots exported to Japan into an awkward corner, and imposed severe impact on the consumer ceramic Japan-exportation industry.

(China Development Gateway July 20, 2007)