The ideas of Russia’s notorious ex-chief sanitary inspector are still alive. Gennady Onishchenko, the Russian healthcare official, frequently used import bans as his favorite economic and “biological” weapon in trade disagreements. Nowadays, import bans as well corruption are gladly adopted around the world. Lately, China has banned all imports of the British cheese. U.K. exports of cheese have been temporarily suspended following a recent inspection tour by Chinese officials. The inspection was held at one of the largest dairy factory in the U.K. to ensure all U.K. suppliers of dairy products conformed to the new Chinese Food Safety law due to be implemented from 1 May, 2014. The Chinese food officials found out serious breaches of the hygienic standards. So, they were concerned about maintenance of equipment, air sanitization, raw milk transport temperatures, and improper storage facilities. The temporary block will remain valid until all U.K. cheese plants exporting to China are audited by the Chinese local authorities. For the reference, Asian sales markets, China in particular, are of great strategic importance for most of European producers including the U.K. The annual turnover with China accounts for a big share of Britain’s GDP. George Eustice, the Head of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, stressed the significance of the economic cooperation with China and said the import ban was disappointing. The Farming minister called on China’s healthcare watchdog to resolve the matter as quickly as possible and lift the ban. Thus, without any sanctions and dramatic statements China is shaping commercial relations with its trade partners using just the hygiene regulations and achieving their ambitions.
