The United States has started bulk buying Japanese seafood to supply its military there in response to China’s ban on such products imposed after Tokyo released treated water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea.
Unveiling the initiative in a Reuters interview on Monday, U.S. ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel said Washington should also look more broadly into how it could help offset China’s ban that he said was part of its “economic wars.”
China, which had been the biggest buyer of Japanese seafood, says its ban is due to food safety fears.
The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog vouched for the safety of the water release that began in August from the plant wrecked by a 2011 tsunami. G7 trade ministers on Sunday called for the immediate repeal of bans on Japanese food.
I agree that testing catches may be a solution here. However, I don’t see why it’s incumbent on China to create such a testing infrastructure especially when they aren’t the only ones with concerns. If Japan wants to negotiate and work something out I’m sure they can. In fact I’d be willing to bet that’s what they’re doing at this very moment.
That’s the thing, the infrastructure already exists, and tests were performed, and the UN atomic council certified the results that the water was clean.
China is saying the fish are unsafe in spite of that. It’s on them to prove that the test is incorrect.
No, that’s just not true. There is no infrastructure for Japanese fishing companies to show that each catch is free of contamination.
Also, as far as I’m aware testing to see if fish have been affected by the initial release of wastewater has only just begun. I don’t even think the results are publicly available yet. To add to that scientists have found contaminated fish from the Fukushima area containing unsafe levels of radionuclides prior to this release of wastewater.
Hmmm. Well I’m interested to see what testing shows.