The Macau Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) has announced that it has signed a deal with Gongbei Customs in Zhuhai enabling the mainland to supply Macau with fruit that it has imported from foreign countries.
The bureau made the announcement in a statement on Friday, when the new deal took effect.
Xinhua noted in a report on Friday that before the new deal’s implementation, the mainland could only supply domestically grown fruit to Macau. Fruit importers in Macau could only primarily rely on Hong Kong for the delivery of fruit from foreign countries because of which the delivery cost was relatively high while choices of the fruit imported into Macau were relatively limited.
According to Friday’s IAM statement, the deal was signed in Guangzhou on Thursday by IAM President Chao Wai Ieng and Zhan Shaotong, who heads Gongbei Customs.
The statement said that thanks to the support by the central government’s General Administration of Customs, the Municipal Affairs Bureau and Gongbei Customs have been able to further strengthen cooperation on the inspection and quarantine of food and animal and plant products.
The statement said that previously fruit imported from foreign countries into the Chinese mainland could not be re-exported to Macau, whereas thanks to the new agreement the mainland can now re-export such fruit to Macau.
The statement said that with the signing of the agreement, Guangdong and Macau have jointly established a liaison mechanism for ensuring the implementation of the mainland’s re-export of fruit to Macau. The statement said that through meetings, exchanges and joint assessments between both sides, their respective regulatory resources can be integrated to strengthen supervisory cooperation on product packaging, transportation, and documentation, enabling fruit imported from foreign countries into the mainland that have passed its inspection and quarantine procedures to be supplied to Macau.
Two Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) inspectors check foreign fruit re-exported by the mainland to Macau, upon their delivery to here on Friday. – Photo: IAM
