A bitter trade dispute erupted in 2000 between South Korea and China when Seoul imposed a 315-percent tariff on cheap Chinese garlic to protect South Korean farmers. (image: wikipedia)
BEIJING, Feb. 4 (Korea Bizwire) – China’s commerce ministry said Wednesday that it is “highly concerned” about a recent rejection of some Chinese garlic imports by South Korea, asking Seoul to properly handle the trade dispute.
South Korea’s state-run Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp. returned about 2,200 tons of garlic to Lanling County in Shandong Province, China, from the southern port city of Busan last month because the shipment failed to meet South Korea’s quality standards.
China’s state media reported earlier this week that garlic farmers in Lanling County lodged complaints with the Chinese commerce ministry, calling the move by South Korea “unfair treatment.”
“We are highly concerned about this situation and asked, for the first time, the South Korean trade counselor in Beijing to intervene in the situation,” the Chinese commerce ministry said in a statement.
The Chinese ministry said it hopes South Korea will “properly” handle the trade dispute, according to the statement.
The South Korean trade counselor at the South Korean Embassy in Beijing was not immediately available for comment.
“From the perspective of Korea-China economic and trade cooperation, we hope that this incident can be properly handled to maintain the healthy development of Sino-Korean bilateral trade,” the Chinese ministry said.
South Korean officials have said the Chinese garlic shipment failed to pass quality tests at a quarantine inspection facility in Busan. So, there was “no problem” under the contract between the South Korean food trade agency and the Chinese farmers in Shandong.
Zhao Zhongxiu, a trade professor at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, told the state-run China Daily on Tuesday that an intermediary Chinese company was responsible for the garlic dispute because it applied China’s domestic quality standards when it exported the garlic to South Korea.
Zhao said many Chinese exporters are still using methods applied in the Chinese market to carry out international trade.
A bitter trade dispute erupted in 2000 between South Korea and China when Seoul imposed a 315-percent tariff on cheap Chinese garlic to protect South Korean farmers.
South Korea later cut the tariff to 30 percent and agreed to import 32,000 tons of Chinese garlic after China retaliated by banning shipments of mobile phones and polyethylene from South Korea.
(Yonhap)
