NANNING, Oct. 29 ,2007 -- China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Monday issued a joint statement, vowing to strengthen cooperation in food safety, promote food trade and protect consumers' rights and benefits.

The Nanning Joint Statement was issued at the end of the two-day China-ASEAN Ministerial Conference on Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine in the southern China city of Nanning, where the Fourth China-ASEAN Expo and Fourth China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit are going on.

According to the joint statement, ministers and representatives from China and ASEAN countries as well as the ASEAN Secretariat have had extensive exchanges on food safety laws and regulations, and administrative systems of China and ASEAN members, before mutual understanding was enhanced.

Based the discussions, they reached eight points of common understanding on strengthening China-ASEAN food safety, promoting food trade and protecting consumers' rights.

Recognizing that food safety is of great importance to consumers' health, trade development and social stability, and food safety issues are the responsibility of all parties, the ministers and representatives agreed to support and strengthen cooperation and exchanges in the field.

They also pledged to encourage active exchanges of information about food safety laws, regulations, standards and information in line with the principle of transparency, in order to enhance mutual understanding and trust.

They agreed to strengthen exchanges of food safety managerial and technical expertise to ensure food safety, and designate contact points for timely notification of information on food safety.

"We agreed that notification on any new food safety and sanitary measures on food importation should be transmitted promptly through respective contact point unless under emergency situation," says the joint statement.

The notification should include the scope, description, reason and period as well as necessary information to assist the notified party to deal with the issue correctly.

China and ASEAN members agreed that the responsibility for ensuring food safety should be provided by exporting countries, and pledged to verify and clarify the food safety reports, food alert or an allegation on food safety to ensure risks to consumers' health is not compromised.

They will strengthen cooperation to combat illegal food trade and to prevent intentional creation of food safety adversities.

Senior officials of China and ASEAN countries in charge of import and export food safety will meet every two years to keep the cooperation going, says the joint statement.

The China-ASEAN Expo and summit, which run parallel in four days from Sunday to Wednesday, serve as an annual gathering of political and business leaders in China and the ten ASEAN member countries. The ministerial conference is one of a series of nine forums and meetings scheduled under different themes for further cooperation between China and Southeast Asian countries.