The European Union (EU) has welcomed the move by the Malaysian government to set up a food security bureau to ensure fisheries products from Malaysia conformed to standards set by the union, Xinhua quoted Head of the European Commission Delegation to Malaysia Vincent Piket as saying in Kuching, capital of eastern Sarawak state, on Thursday. The commitment shown by the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry and the Health Ministry in establishing the bureau showed serious measures are being taken to lift the ban on seafood imports from Malaysia since early this year, Piket said after calling on Sarawak state deputy Chief Minister Alfred Jabu. "I hope the two ministries will continue their cooperation with the EU, especially in addressing technical aspects, to ensure Malaysia's fisheries industry attain the standard stipulated by the union," Malaysian national news agency Bernama quoted Piket as saying. While the EU wanted fisheries products imports from Malaysia to continue, the union was prepared to lift the ban if Malaysia took appropriate measures to improve seafood quality particularly from safety and health aspects, the news agency said. Malaysia's fisheries industry suffered a 600 million ringgit (175.44 million U.S. dollars) loss when EU imposed a ban on Malaysian seafood imports early this year. Based on a audit by an EU agriculture team in April, Malaysian fisheries products failed to comply with EU safety and quality standards such as unhygienic processing factories and fish landing jetties. Meanwhile, Piket said that the EU will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Malaysia by year-end on sustainable forest management in line with EU's environment conservation policy as part of efforts to address global warming. Malaysia exports 3 billion ringgit (877.19 million U.S. dollars) worth of timber and wood products to the EU countries a year.
