Analysis on the Technical Trade Barriers Faced by China’s Vegetable Export and China-Japan Vegetab

摘要：本文對中國蔬菜出口所面臨的技術(shù)型貿(mào)易壁壘形式進(jìn)行分析，并就中日蔬菜貿(mào)易戰(zhàn)及日本肯定列表制度對我國的影響與相應(yīng)對策進(jìn)行探討。Abstract: This paper analyzes technical trade barriers to Chinese vegetable export， and discusses the issue of China-Japanese vegetable trade war as well as the Japanese Positive List System， trying to investigate into the impact and countermeasures.關(guān)鍵字：技術(shù)性貿(mào)易壁壘；中日蔬菜貿(mào)易摩擦；肯定列表Key words: Technical Trade Barriers; China-Japanese vegetable trade friction; Positive ListI. Analysis on the impact of technical trade barriers on China’s vegetable exportChina is a big vegetable producing country. In 2000， the growing area of vegetables was 14.67 million tons， about 35% of the world total. The total output registered 440 million tons， accounting for about 65% of the world total. The export that year was 2.45 million tons， accounting for 7% of the world total. In recent years， China’s vegetable export grows rapidly with annual exports already exceeding $1.5 billion. This has attracted the attention of related importing countries which begin to impose import controls on China’s exports in succession. After China’accession to the WTO， traditional discriminatory trade policies adopted by the importing countries such as quotas and tariff will be reduced accordingly， but technical trade barriers are bound to increase.With the international trade growing into depth and the international market competition becoming increasingly fierce， in order to protect their agriculture， some developed countries rush to adopt over-standard technical trade barriers to restrict vegetable exports from developing countries. The European Union， the US， and Japan have all taken such kind of measures against China. Japan， in particular， has taken especially tough measures. The number of Japan’s residue inspection items on garlic imported from China had increased from 56 in 1994 to 104 in 1998 and then to 114 in 2001. Since technical trade barriers are legitimate， elusive， and specially targeted， China’s vegetable exports were greatly impeded. Since January 2003 Japan began to increase the items of sampling inspection on vegetables imported from China (from 6 to more than 40 items)， and each group was inspected. As a result， the exports of China’s vegetables to Japan such as snow peas， broccoli， and scallion have been severely impeded and quite a few orders have been canceled. In April 2002， Japan published new standard on vegetable pesticide residue， providing that the maximum residue limit of chlorpyrifos in spinach was 0.01ppm which was a very strict pesticide residue standard， meaning that as long as pesticides were used in growing spinach， the vegetable produced would fail to meet the standard. This kind of obvious trade protectionism led to a slump of China’s frozen chopped spinach export to Japan， a year-on-year drop of 30%. In addition， since Japan also intensified quarantine inspection on vegetables imported from China， the inspection and customs clearance time were prolonged， the number of frozen fresh vegetables exported also decreased accordingly.II. Status quo and features of Japan’s technical trade barriers on agricultural productsJapan’s technical trade barriers are mainly manifested in the following aspects: technical rules， regulations， and standards， accreditation systems， agricultural products inspection and quarantine procedures， and other green barriers such as packaging and tags. To be specific:Firstly， complete and rigorous laws and regulations have been formulated. Japan set out to make laws and regulations from 1947 and has successively issued a series of health and safety rules and regulations concerning the production， processing， and sales of agricultural products and foodstuff such as Food Hygiene Law(1997)， Pesticide Control Law (1948)， and Nutritional Improvement Rule(1952)， all of which became the measures taken to inspect food safety in early postwar years. Since 1951， in order to avoid the recurrence of poison incident like the one caused by the import of miscellaneous beans， Japan began to post food safety inspectors at major ports， exercising safety quarantine on imported food and gradually forming a complete food safety quarantine system.Secondly， strict and compulsory technical standards and complicated inspection and quarantine procedures have been formulated. Japan’s technical requirements on many goods are compulsory. It usually asks for such requirements to be stated in agreements or letters of credit: upon entry into Japanese customs， the Japanese officials will inspect on the cargo to check if it meets various technical standards. The hygiene and safety quarantine of Japan on imported food is divided into three steps. Step 1: plant quarantine stations and animal quarantine stations of the quarantine agencies of the Ministry of Agriculture， Forestry and Fisheries will conduct primary sample quarantine on imported fresh vegetables and fruits， grain， beans， poultry， and livestock from the perspective of damages by diseases and insects on animals and plants. Those fail to meet the standard will be returned or destroyed. Step 2: quarantine stations governed by the Ministry of Health， Labor and Welfare send out food hygiene inspectors who will conduct the second hygiene quarantine inspection of examination from the perspective of food hygiene on the imported animal and plant agricultural products and foodstuff and aquatic products produced from them that has passed the primary quarantine inspection. Step 3: when necessary， another administrative inspection will be carried out or and independent inspection will be conducted by the designated agencies.In addition， Japan also practiced strict and tough accreditation systems as well as packaging and tagging requirements. According to statistics， at present Japan has 25 accreditation systems which not only conduct dynamic survey on imported goods， make qualitative and quantitative analyses， confirm the quality of products， assess the quality of production crafts and methods. At the same time， the packaging and tagging requirements of Japan on imported goods aimed to not only ensure food safety， but also minimize the impact of packaging on the environment.III. China-Japan vegetable trade friction caused by technical trade barriers and Japan’s Positive List Systemi. Causes and influences of China-Japan vegetable trade frictionJapan has long been a major exporting market of China’s vegetable products， but since 2000， vegetable trade frictions between the two countries have cropped up frequently. After the trade frictions concerning green Chinese onion， fresh mushroom， and Juncus effusus， relevant departments on the Japanese sides continue to strengthen testing and inspection on vegetables imported from China， especially on frozen chopped spinach. Since Japan set an extremely high standard on the pesticide residue level， part of the vegetables exported by China to Japan could not meet the standard. The Japanese media labeled these vegetables which failed to meet the standard on pesticide residue as “poisonous vegetables”， forming a severe impediment to the ChinaJapan vegetable trade. According to statistics， in 2002 China’s vegetable exports to Japan only grew by 2.3% from January to June， and in July and August， there even appeared negative growth rates of -11% and -14%. During the first seven months in 2003， the export of fresh vegetables and temperate preserved vegetables to Japan from China decreased by 20% and 29% respectively. In addition， Japan has also frequently made use of technical trade barriers to impose restrictions on China’s vegetable exports， which violates the principle of nondiscrimination of the World Trade Organization and the special and differential treatment provision concerning the developing countries as provided in the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade.ii. Introduction and impacts of Japan’s Positive List SystemOn June 21， 2005， Japan’s Ministry of Health， Labor and Welfare sent the notification No. G/SPS/ N/JPN/145 through WTO to other WTO members， informing them of the standards and norms of food and food additives in the Food Hygiene Law they planned to amend as well as the fact that it would put in place the Positive List System on agricultural chemicals. This system set new standards for the residual level of agricultural chemicals universally used in the world at present， including pesticides， veterinary medicine， feed additives etc. After the amend- ment came into force， Japan would prohibit the selling of agricultural chemicals without limit standards or agricultural chemicals failed to meet the standards. Since Japan’s Positive List System changed its agricultural pesticides and veterinary medicine residue management system in a fundamental way with much more extensive new standards and severer index requirements， the implementation of it would directly affect China’s agricultural products export to Japan， and bear an impact on the interests of numerous agricultural products exporting enterprises in China， and therefore aroused much attention all over China.According to the statistics of the Food and Agriculture Organization(FAO)， Japan is the world’s second largest agricultural products import country， second only to the US， as well as China’ No. 1 international market of its agricultural products export. In 2005， China’s agricultural products and foodstuff exports to Japan amounted to $7.93 billion， accounting for 29.2% of its total agricultural exports. In May 2003， Japan amended the Food Hygiene Law. According to the newly amended Food Hygiene Law， Japan would issue the Positive List System on residual level of agricultural chemicals (including pesticides， veterinary medicine and feed addictives， etc.) in foodstuff in November 2005 and implement the system on May 29， 2006. The implementation of the system will exert a large influence on China’s agricultural products export to Japan. The introduction of the Positive List System is a new measure taken by Japan aiming to strengthen its efforts of reducing the residual of agricultural chemicals in agricultural products， which undoubtedly form a new technical trade barrier.The Positive List System has explicit provisions on all agricultural chemicals residual in agricultural products and foodstuff. Fifteen agricultural pesticides and veterinary medicines have been banned. All together 53862 limit standards， including current standards and provisional MRLs (Maximum Residue Limits)， have been set on 797 agricultural pesticides， veterinary medicines， and feed addictives. For those exports without the limit standard， a uniform standard has been exercised， namely no more than 0.01ppm. Only 68 natural and chemical compounds (mainly nutrient) have been exempted from being set a limit standard. From May 29， 2006， only foodstuff and agricultural products that conform to the Positive List System can get access into the Japanese market. The change of Japan’s management system on agricultural chemicals will increase the trade costs of China’s agricultural products and foodstuff exports to Japan by a large margin， prolong the customs clearance time， and severely affect the healthy development of China-Japanese agricultural products and foodstuff trade.The impact of Japan’s Positive List System on China’s agricultural products trade with Japan is characterized by the following features: a substantial increase in the number of limits， tougher and more rigorous standards， fold increase of testing items， considerable slow-down in customs clearance time， and great increase in export costs.IV. Study on the countermeasures of China’s vegetable industry in face of Japan’s technical trade measures and its Positive List SystemMany scholars at home have made researches in this field. Zhao Haiyan (2005) pointed out that when imposing restrictions which have resulted in trade frictions， Japan would in general claim that it acts on relevant provisions in WTO agreements. For example， in April， 2001， Japan imposed emergency import restrictions upon China， and the Japanese government claimed that it took such measures in accordance with provisions concerning “special safeguard measures” in the Agreement on Agriculture. However， as a matter of fact， the application of provisions stipulated in the Agreement on Agriculture by the member states requires three conditions: a. an increase of import due to lower foreign prices or other unforeseen circumstances; b. the increase of import has led to huge losses in domestic industry and the causeeffect relationship can be proved; and c. national economy is facing great pressure. As for the China-Japanese vegetable trade at that time， the reality could not conform to these conditions.Traditional trade theories have proven that any distortion of free trade will invariably harm the welfare of the trading countries. Compared with unilateral trade protectionism， the harm caused by trade frictions on the trading countries’ social welfare is two-fold. One is the losses of various countries’ welfare caused by the trade protective policies employed by the initiating country， and the other is the impact on various countries’ welfare caused by the countermeasures of the corresponding trading partner.After China’s entry into the WTO， its foreign vegetable trade has entered a new stage. Although China and Japan have experienced continuous friction in their vegetable trade this year， there is certain complementarily in the two countries’agriculture. As a result， cooperation in trade is beneficial to the common development of both countries’economy. As for China， if it attempts to break through such kind of technical measures， it should first of all actively make use of the rules of the WTO as well as international common practices to properly resolve the trade friction， carry out timely tracking of related information about various products， set up and improve a early warning mechanism， trying to provide accurate early warnings before the happening of trade disputes and to come up with solutions as soon as possible. At the same time， China should set up a standard system on vegetable products quality which is in line with the international standard， develop diversified products， actively tap international market， and improve.(Author: Master at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences)