Macau authorities on Wednesday last week announced that they had found the nucleic acid of SARS-CoV-2 on mangoes imported from Taiwan, an incident that came just weeks after similar claims by Chinese authorities with regard to Taiwanese frozen ribbonfish and horse mackerel imports.
Consequently, the batch of 20 boxes of mangoes, weighing about 100kg, was destroyed, and the Macau Municipal Affairs Bureau imposed a one-week ban on shipments from the Taiwanese mango importer and the producers from whom it sources its fruits.
As well as lacking a scientific basis, this measure runs contrary to the rules of international trade.
SARS-CoV-2 can infect humans and animals, but it cannot infect plants or be spread by them.
Furthermore, there is no evidence that packaging contaminated with SARS-CoV-2 can infect humans, mainly because viruses can only survive on the surface of objects for a limited time.
If China destroys Taiwanese products and suspends their importation on grounds related to COVID-19, it should present evidence that the virus was on the packaging and a scientific analysis that proves the contamination poses a risk to humans.
Only then would people be convinced that the action taken is reasonable.
At meetings of the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures since 2020, member countries, including Australia, Canada, the EU, India, Russia and the US, have raised concerns about China’s “excessive” measures regarding COVID-19, which have affected trade in food and agricultural products.
The complaints showed that China has a long track record of hindering international trade citing COVID-19 concerns.
Moreover, even if the mangoes were found to have SARS-CoV-2 on their packaging, the problem could have been solved by cleaning them with bleach or alcohol. Was it really necessary to destroy all the mangoes?
China’s handling of the incident is so far over the top that one can only shake their head in dismay.
Yeh Yu-cheng is a secretary at the Pingtung Public Health Bureau.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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