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US bans farmed fish, shrimp from China

The US added farm-raised fish and shrimp to a growing list of Chinese products deemed unsafe for US consumers, regulators said on Thursday.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said it would block the import of farmed Chinese seafood until importers could prove the shipments were free of unsafe contaminants.

The move comes just days after lawmakers urged a recall of up to 450,000 Chinese tires because of safety defects and weeks after thousands of cats and dogs died because of tainted Chinese pet food.

Dangerous toys, fake drugs, toxin-coated cosmetics, pesticide-laden mushrooms, errant fireworks and tainted toothpaste are among the flagged Chinese products that led to recalls, bans and potentially more stringent import and food safety laws.

PRODUCT RECALLS

Chinese-made products account for 60 percent of all consumer-product recalls in the US, with the number of recalls doubling in the last five years to 467 last year, according to Consumer Reports.

The actions come amid growing protests over the massive US trade deficit with China, which stood at US$19.3 billion in April and US$232.5 billion last year.

Thursday's broad import control was imposed after regulators repeatedly found seafood shipments contaminated with antimicrobial agents that are not approved for use in the US, the FDA said.

It affects all farm-raised catfish, basa, shrimp, dace (related to carp), and eel from China.

There have been no reports of illnesses to date and exporters will be able to seek exemptions if they prove they have protected their fish from contamination, the FDA said.

The levels of the drug residues found in the seafood are very low, most often at or near the minimum level of detection, it said.

ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE

The FDA has not issued a recall of fish already admitted into the country but said it was "concerned about long term exposure as well as the possible development of antibiotic resistance."

One of the banned agents is fluoroquinolones, which is approved for use in China.

The FDA said its use "may increase antibiotic resistance to this critically important class of antibiotics."

Two additional contaminants, the antimicrobials nitrofuran and malachite green, have been shown to be carcinogenic with long-term exposure in lab animals and are also banned in China.

China is the largest producer of farmed seafood in the world, and accounts for 70 percent of the total production around the world.
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