Obama comes to Canada Feb 19

Last Updated: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 3:17 PM ET
CBC News

U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Canada on Feb. 19, the White House announced on Wednesday, his first official trip abroad.

"Canada is a vitally important ally," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters. "The president looks forward to the opportunity to speak with Prime Minister Harper and visit our neighbour to the north."

Obama had already pledged his first official foreign trip would be to Canada but had not specified a date.

No details of the visit were announced. Former president George W. Bush made his first foreign visit to Mexico.

Last week, Prime Minister Stephen Harper spoke with Obama following his inauguration and congratulated him.

The Prime Minister's Office said Harper and Obama discussed the economy, his upcoming trip to Canada, energy, environment and the war in Afghanistan.

A recent poll, conducted before Obama took the oath of office Jan. 20, showed large support for the new president, with 81 per cent of Canadians holding a positive view of him.

China seeks to assure on food safety amid U.S. talks

By Lindsay Beck
BEIJING (Reuters) - China sought to assure its trade partners on Thursday that its food products were safe, after the United States called Chinese food exports a "top concern" and pressed Chinese officials to strengthen oversight.

Food products from China have come under intense scrutiny around the world after a spate of safety breaches involving toxins in products from pet food to toothpaste, which prompted wide recalls and government investigations.

"Recent events have forced very clearly, as one of our top concerns, the safety of food and medicine," U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said at the close of a two-day "strategic economic dialogue" in Washington involving scores of senior officials from the United States and China.

Fears over the safety of Chinese food products have become so great the Agriculture Ministry was forced to dismiss a rumor on Thursday that bananas grown on the southern island province of Hainan might contain a virus similar to SARS.

"It is purely a rumor and it is impossible for bananas to contain SARS-like virus," the ministry said in a statement on its Web site (www.agri.gov.cn), referring to text messages some mobile phone users had received.

China has been responding to the growing concerns about its food industry with a series of measures, including investigations to probe the use of melamine scrap -- the additive that led to at least 16 pet deaths in the United States -- and companies exporting toothpaste containing a lethal chemical.

On Thursday, China's General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine sought to explain to U.S. regulators its policy on antibiotics in catfish, after the states of Alabama and Mississippi banned imports of the fish citing high levels of fluoroquinolones, Xinhua news agency reported.

The antibiotic was not banned in China, Japan or the European Union, Xinhua said, adding that although the states in questions had a "zero level" standard, concentrations did not exceed levels accepted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) federally.

"The U.S. side should abide by the WTO principle of minimizing the impact of health issues on trade ... and not take restrictive measures against all imported products of this kind," the report said.

SAFE OLYMPICS

In China's latest step to tighten controls, Beijing said it would strengthen oversight of food products entering the city.

China's capital, which hosts the Olympic Games next year, will also increase rewards for uncovering unlawful production methods from 10,000 yuan ($1,300) to 50,000 yuan.

Beijing "this year will set up a supervision system to analyze food additives, and intensify management of the approval system and record-keeping of food additive enterprises," the Beijing News reported.

Beijing is extremely sensitive to ensuring every aspect of security, including food safety, for the 2008 Olympics, when millions of visitors -- athletes, journalists and tourists -- descend on the city.

The food safety issue has become a flashpoint in relations between the United States and China, which produces billions of dollars worth of counterfeit and substandard goods, from fake liquor and medicines to luxury handbags.
Among the host of measures Washington is seeking are more transparent food regulations and permission to send U.S. audit teams to China.

Currently, all vegetable protein imports from China are on "import alert," which means they get immediate inspection, and the FDA is beginning to check shipments of toothpaste.

Talks on food safety will continue in Washington.

China Calls for Cooler Heads over Product Safety | Reuters

Wed May 23, 2:05 AM
BEIJING (Reuters) - China called for cooler heads to prevail in a widening scandal over the safety of its products on Wednesday, accusing critics of exploiting concerns about specific cases to put barriers in the way of Chinese exports in general.

In the latest incident, the Dominican Republic has banned the sale of two brands of Chinese toothpaste for containing a lethal chemical responsible for dozens of poisoning deaths in Panama last year.

A company under investigation for exporting the toothpaste, Danyang Household Chemical Company, defended its product.

"Toothpaste is not something you'd swallow, but spit out, and so it's totally different from something you would eat," a company manager, who declined to be identified, said by telephone from the eastern province of Jiangsu.

In the United States, consumers have been alarmed by a spate of pet deaths blamed on tainted wheat gluten and rice protein exported from China, as well as reports of toxins and disease in other Chinese exports.

That has helped make food safety the latest flashpoint in often tense trade relations between China and the United States, who have sparred over everything from copyright piracy to Beijing's currency regime.

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi is in Washington this week for the latest round of dialogue aimed at finding long-term solutions to trade and economic irritants, in particular the United States' frustration over its huge trade deficit with China.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns brought the food safety issue up with Wu's delegation on Tuesday, saying it was something that worried U.S. lawmakers and consumers alike.

BUNGLING IN BEIJING

The government-run China Daily, often used by Beijing to get its message to the outside world, said on Wednesday that Chinese products were generally safe and cheap, but admitted that authorities had bungled the crisis.

"Our quality watchdogs' contradictory statements regarding responsibility for the sensational pet food scandal was a shameful example of lack of professionalism," it said.

"To restore and maintain consumer confidence, our quality watchdogs have an obligation to demonstrate that Chinese exports are safe."

But the daily urged "all beneficiaries of Chinese exports to maintain cool heads amid possibly unfair allegations against Chinese exports."

"Stricter monitoring by destination countries is only part of the headache for Chinese food exporters. Their (exporters') greater concern is what they call groundless categorization, or a tendency to discriminate against all products from China."

Sun Jiong, director of the China Food Industries Production Promotion Centre, told Reuters he believed the main issue was one of trade protection, rather than any inherent problems with the country's quality controls.

"We have many agricultural products so we want to sell them," Sun said. "Then other countries try to practice trade protection and set up trade barriers. How do they do that? By saying they're raising standards."

In the Dominican Republic case, nearly 90,000 units of the toothpaste, imported from Panama and sold under the brand names Excel and Mr. Cool, were confiscated by authorities in the Caribbean country, the Dominican health secretary said.

Panama pulled thousands of tubes of the toothpaste from stores last week after tests showed they contained high levels of diethylene glycol, a toxic chemical used in engine coolants.

Do Not Buy Products Made In China

I have always stressed the importance of buying products, esp. food products, that are made locally or in a reputable country. Ok, sometimes you can't help purchasing a product esp. a computer component or clothing that is NOT made in China. But anything that I would consume, I would be sure that it was not EVER made in China. I just got a scary email about a toxic industrial solvent from China made its way into medication in Panama, killing at least 100 people!! This company sold this solvent as pure glycerin!!!

A Poison's Path