Europe urges China cooperation in consumer safety

BEIJING, May 21 (Reuters) The EU's consumer safety chief urged China today to work more closely with international counterparts to defuse worries about its goods, but said European consumers had no reason for alarm despite recent US scares.

US consumers have been worried 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.

Checks of pet food in European shops had not found the tainted ingredient, European Commission Director General for Health and Consumer Protection, Robert Madelin, told Reuters, adding that Brussels and Beijing had a ''good record of cooperation'' in consumer safety.

''The pet food scare has not affected Europe at the moment,'' he said.

China's rickety system of food and medicine inspections has also flared as a domestic worry. In April, the ruling Communist Party's Politburo -- its inner council -- met to discuss strengthening controls.

''The food safety situation is quite grim, and unsafe factors penetrate the entire food supply process,'' Outlook Weekly, a magazine issued by the official Xinhua news agency, said this week.

Madelin, visiting Beijing to attend an international conference on consumer safety, said he was looking for more cooperation, especially in stopping genetically altered farm produce creeping into goods.

China should embrace deeper international coordination, he said.

''For Europe as for China, the lesson that we have learned is that if you open up, if you cooperate with the rest of the world, that helps to drive your regulatory standards higher,'' he said.

''In some areas like GM controls, I think there's room to do more of that positive cooperation,'' he added, referring to genetically modified crops.

European and Chinese officials have been negotiating rules to test for ingredients processed from genetically modified rice or other cereals in Chinese exports.

But the rules have not been finalised, and Beijing has still to share a full set of samples so inspectors can identify the presence of genetically modified crops, Madelin said.

''We've got some samples but not necessarily the whole quantity that we're asking for,'' he said.

Brussels is also concerned about the way China has been vaccinating poultry against avian influenza, potentially exposing other birds and consumers to ill effects, Madelin said.

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