Senior EU officials hit out at Asia over dioxin scare

Senior EU officials hit out at Asia over dioxin scare

BANGKOK (Agencies): Senior European officials accused Asian countries of "overreacting" to Belgium's dioxin scare on Thursday, as China swelled the list of nations which have banned selected EU food imports.

The European Union's (EU) senior diplomat in Southeast Asia called on Asian governments to lift import bans, saying there was no evidence European products were tainted with potentially cancer-causing dioxins.

"To date, the (European) Commission has round no evidence of contaminated products entering any country outside the KU," EU delegation head Michel Caillouet told reporters.

"If we have no evidence, we hope the ban on some European products will be lifted very quickly."

Singling out Malaysia, he said some countries were "over- reacting" to reports of high levels of dioxins in a range of food products from EU-member Belgium.

"Why ban all EU (food) products in Malaysia? This is something I do not understand," he added.

Caillouet said the dioxin problem had been isolated to one animal feed producer in Belgium and brought under control.

Belgian and EU food exports have faced selective bans in Asia and elsewhere since the weekend and many governments have demanded proof including certification from the World Health Organization, of the products' safety before imports are resumed.

China on Thursday added its name to the list of Asian states restricting -- Belgian -- and sometimes European -- food imports, including Hong Kong, Thailand Singapore, South Korea Malaysia, and the Philippines.

"Imports of chicken and dairy products from Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands and produced after January 15 will be temporarily banned," an urgent Chinese health ministry circular said.

"Products from these countries already in China win be recalled from sale."

The circular said the measure had been taken for health reasons and out of fear of dioxin contamination in the products.

China's move followed Malaysia's decision Monday to temporarily slap bans on imports of an European meat, eggs and dairy products.

On Thursday, the Belgian government listed farms that could have been affected by the cancer-causing chemical dioxin, a big step in putting local meat back in stores two weeks after the start of the biggest food scare since the 1996 mad cow crisis.

The European Union kept its borders closed to most Belgian meat and byproducts, and many other nations have extended such measures to other EU countries.

Following a night of crisis negotiations, the Belgian government completed a list of poultry farms that might have been contaminated, freeing other farms to market their safe chicken. Early Thursday, long lines of trucks lined up outside slaughterhouses.

In addition to poultry, pork and beef certified as safe was to be brought onto the market as of Friday. "The government decided that a large part of the beef and pork sector win be freed for domestic consumption and export," said Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene. He said 17 percent of beef farms, 40 percent of pork companies and almost half the poultry firms remained off limits.