Fishing in trade wars

A day after regulators in the United States placed a partial ban on imports of certain types of seafood from China, the Chinese government promised to cooperate in tackling its food safety problems but urged a quick resolution.

A day after regulators in the United States placed a partial ban on imports of certain types of seafood from China, the Chinese government promised to cooperate in tackling its food safety problems but urged a quick resolution.

In tones that were at times defiant, China pressed the United States to act promptly and fairly and cautioned that Chinese seafood products should not be “automatically held and rejected indiscriminately.”

In a statement issued late Friday, China’s top quality watchdog, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, acknowledged that there were safety problems with Chinese seafood exports but also said that it had found similar problems in food imported from the US.

“Just like the US imported food in China, there are quality problems with aquatic products that are exported to the US by some Chinese enterprises,” the government said in a statement posted on one of its websites. “China has cooperated and handled these problems properly.”

The statement came after the Food and Drug Administration in the US said on Thursday that it would effectively block the sale of five types of farmed fish, including shrimp and catfish, unless independent testing proved that the goods were free of contamination.

China’s sharp response to the restrictions in the US sets the stage for what could be a high-stakes trade dispute over seafood, one of the fastest-growing segments of the global food market.

FDA officials declined to comment on China’s response. China is already the world’s biggest producer and exporter of seafood, and a growing portion of that is sent to the US.

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But China also has leverage because it is one of the largest importers of American grain, and its food market is increasingly enticing to big American corporations. Indeed, US authorities are pressing China to lift a ban on American beef.

“If I were the Chinese I would not start a trade war over this,” said Dermot Hayes, a professor of agricultural economics at Iowa State University. “They have a huge trade surplus with us, so it’d be like picking a fight with a rich grandmother.”

China has an increasingly poor track record of exporting tainted seafood products to the United States. Time and again over the last few years, Chinese seafood has tested positive for carcinogens and excessive antibiotic residues.