China Urges U.S. Not to Punish All Food Exporters
By DAVID BARBOZA
Published: May 17, 2007

中國敦促美國不要懲罰所有的食品出口企業

SHANGHAI, May 16 — China has urged the United States not to take punitive action against this country’s exporters of agricultural goods even though Chinese officials have determined that two Chinese companies intentionally contaminated American pet food ingredients with an industrial chemical.
紐約時報上海5月16日電---中國敦促美國不要對中國農產品出口企業采取懲罰性行動，盡管中國官員已經確認兩家中國企業曾故意向美國寵物食品中添加一種工業化學品。

The government said this week that it had shut the two companies and detained several of their officers for their roles in setting off one of the largest pet food recalls in United States history.
中國政府本周說，這兩家企業已經被關閉，并拘留了幾名和造成美國歷史上最大的寵物食品召回事件之一有關的官員。

The announcement, which was released late Monday, on the Web site of the country’s quality inspection watchdog, appeared just days after investigators from the federal Food and Drug Administration ended a two-week-long visit to China seeking to determine how an industrial chemical called melamine got mixed into pet food ingredients.
周一晚些時候，中國質量檢測機構的網站上發布了這項聲明。之前幾天，美國FDA的調查人員結束了在中國為期兩周的行程，他們此行的目的是確定一種叫三聚氰胺的工業化學品是如何混入寵物食品的。

“We hope the American side will accurately and objectively deal with problems among individual companies and not take stringent measures against other Chinese companies producing the same type of products,” the government statement read.
中國政府聲明中稱，“希望美方正確客觀地對待個別企業出現的問題，不要對中國其他企業同類產品采取嚴厲措施。”

China also said it hoped the case would not lead to trade frictions.
中國（政府）還希望這個事件不會造成貿易摩擦。

A spokesman for the F.D.A. in Washington could not be reached for comment. On Tuesday, however, F.D.A. officials said during a news conference that American investigators had recently returned from China and were preparing a report on the trip. The official said it was unclear when such a report would be released.
華盛頓FDA發言人還未對此事發表評論。周二，FDA官員在一個新聞發布會上說，美國調查人員已經回國，并在途中準備了一份報告，但該報告何時對外公布還不清楚。

The announcement was the clearest signal yet that China was working hard to repair the damage done by the pet food scandal and growing concerns about the quality of the country’s agricultural exports.
中國政府的聲明是一個清晰的信號，表明中國正在努力消除寵物食品丑聞造成的損害，并對中國出口農產品質量更加關注。

In recent weeks, China has vowed to step up its own inspections of agricultural and food exports and prove that the country does not have a problem with melamine-tainted food or feed ingredients.
近幾周，中國宣誓將加快它對出口農產品和食品的檢驗，并證明它已不存在三聚氰胺污染食品及飼料添加劑的問題。

The General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine said in its statement this week and in a similar statement released a week earlier that recently completed nationwide inspections had not turned up any food or feed products containing melamine.
國家質量監督檢驗檢疫總局在本周發布的聲明和更早些時候發布的一個類似聲明中說，最近完成的全國范圍內的檢驗行動沒有發現任何含有三聚氰胺的食品或飼料產品。

The government seems determined to paint the two Chinese companies blamed for exporting melamine-tainted wheat flour to the United States as rogue companies, or “special individual cases” in a largely well-managed export industry.
中國政府似乎決定，將那兩個向美國出口含三聚氰胺的麥麩的兩家中國公司，描述成害群之馬，或一個在很大范圍內管理良好的出口行業中的“個別案例”。

The government’s announcement, however, seems quite at odds with local Chinese agricultural industry executives. In recent weeks, they have said in interviews that for years producers and feed makers have either used melamine in animal feed, sold it to animal and fish feed producers or knew of the sale and use of melamine in animal feed.
然而政府聲明似乎和中國農業管理人員的看法不同。最近幾周他們在接受采訪時說，數年來飼料生產商在動物食品中使用三聚氰胺、出售三聚氰胺并了解三聚氰胺在動物飼料中的銷售和使用情況。

Interviews with animal feed producers, melamine makers and melamine and feed traders suggested that it was a widespread practice to mix melamine into feed to deceive buyers into thinking they were getting higher-protein meal.
飼料生產商、三聚氰胺制造商和飼料經銷商在采訪中暗示，將三聚氰胺混入飼料使買家誤以為蛋白含量高的做法，是個廣為傳播的做法。

Most of the people interviewed said they did not believe that the practice was illegal or that melamine was toxic in animals or humans; the melamine was simply filler, most of them said, a way of earning extra profits.
多數被采訪者說，他們認為這種做法并非違法，三聚氰胺對動物或人無毒，只是一種簡單的填料，這是獲取額外利潤的一種途徑。