Beef products are sold at a local supermarket in Beijing in January 2023. Photo: Yin Yeping/GT

China resumed imports of Brazilian beef on Thursday, one month after the product was banned over a confirmed case of mad cow disease. The move comes days ahead of a state visit by Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to China.

China's General Administration of Customs (GAC) conducted technical consultations with the Brazilian side, and organized experts to conduct a risk assessment on Brazil's mad cow disease prevention and control system, the customs authority said on Thursday.

"After evaluation, Brazil's mad cow disease prevention and control system complies with China's relevant quarantine and health requirements, so we decided to allow Brazil to resume exporting deboned beef under 30 months of age to China from March 23," the GAC said on its website.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva's will pay a state visit to China from March 26 to 31, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

According to Reuters, Lula will be accompanied by a delegation of nearly 250 business representatives, a record high, including 90 from the agriculture sector. 

With 69 of the nearly 250 executives traveling, meatpackers dominated the government list including wood pulp producers, a soy crushers group, and executives from the mining, construction and financial services industries, according to a preliminary government list of the delegations seen by Reuters.

China looks forward to constructive discussion with Brazil to promote deeper bilateral economic and trade ties and China-Brazil pragmatic cooperation, by making the most of the state visit later this month, Shu Jueting, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, told a regular briefing on Thursday.

China and Brazil are important economic and trade partners. Bilateral trade relations have continuously deepened, and investment cooperation has become increasingly active over recent years.

China has been Brazil's largest trading partner for 14 consecutive years. Last year, bilateral trade reached $171.49 billion, up 4.9 percent from the previous year, Chinese customs data showed. 

Brazil is China's largest source of such imports as soybeans, chicken, sugar and important agricultural products such as corn have also achieved rapid growth in exports to China during recent years.

China is also an important source of direct investment for the largest country in South America, and bilateral cooperation has been steadily advancing, covering a wide range of fields such as manufacturing, energy and mining, agriculture and infrastructure.

In February, China's central bank said it signed a memorandum of understanding on setting up yuan-clearing arrangements in Brazil with the Central Bank of Brazil. This arrangement will help Chinese and Brazilian firms and financial institutions with cross-border transactions using the yuan, further facilitating bilateral trade and investment.

Global Times