The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF) and the Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China (MOA) held a vice-ministerial meeting at Beijing, China, on March 21 for the first time in six years.
MAFF’s Vice Minister Kazuyoshi Honkawa and MOA’s Vice Minister Qu Dongyu exchanged views on a wide range of subjects, including bilateral measures to control transboundary animal diseases and China’s removals of import restrictions on agricultural, forestry and fishery products. And they came to an agreement that MAFF and MOA will further promote exchanges of persons and information as well as cooperation in various fields of agriculture between the two countries.
Regarding countermeasures against foot-and-mouth disease, the vice-ministers agreed to make related agencies conclude a memorandum mainly on joint studies, technical cooperation and exchanges of researchers.
China is still banning imports of foods shipped from 10 prefectures such as Miyagi and Fukushima in Japan due to the nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of Tokyo Electric Power Company in March 2011. Vice Minister Kazuyoshi Honkawa urged his counterpart of the Chinese Government to persuade related departments and agencies of the Government to lift the import bans of those food products.