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Public shaming: accused human traffickers paraded through streets of China’s southern Jinxi city
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https://scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3161810/vietnam-complains-chinas-border-controls-stop-coronavirus Diplomacy
Vietnam complains China’s border controls to stop coronavirus spreading are ‘overkill’
- Tight curbs introduced as part of the country’s zero-Covid strategy have seen thousands of trucks delayed at border crossings
- Vietnam’s trade ministry says the measures have caused ‘great losses’ to business and traders and urged the Chinese side to act to resolve the problem
China has imposed tight restrictions on its border with Vietnam in an effort to stop Covid-19 spreading. Photo: Reuters
Vietnam has criticised China’s zero-Covid policies as over the top after tight border controls caused a backlog of thousands of trucks and disrupted trade.
“Pandemic prevention measures that Guangxi is applying under the ‘zero Covid’ policy, such as stopping border gate operations or stopping the import of some types of fruit, are overkill,” Vietnam’s trade ministry said after a video call with officials from the southwestern Chinese region on Friday.
“This disrupted the supply chain, negatively impacted the development of bilateral trade and caused great losses to businesses and people on both sides.”
The trade ministry urged China to take urgent measures to ease congestion at border crossings, including starting a pilot programme to allow fully vaccinated workers to alleviate manpower shortages by loading and unloading the trucks held up at Chinese border crossings, the trade ministry said.
Two day ago, Vietnamese deputy foreign minister Nguyen Minh Vu held a phone conversation with Chinese assistant foreign minister Wu Jianghao, during which the two sides agreed to stay in close communication as they worked to resolve the problem, state-owned Vietnam News Agency reported.
Trade between China and Vietnam, particularly overland, has been suffering after thousands of trucks were held up at the border following reports that imported Covid-19 cases had been detected in Pingxiang, a border city in Guangxi.
Since then, China has stepped up its border controls with its neighbour, which has been grappling with a rise in infections since late November, including 16,000 new cases on Friday.
Dongxing, another border city in Guangxi, announced that it had temporarily stopped clearing cargo to pass through its port of entry on December 21, and four days later Hekou, a border town in Yunnan province, announced similar measures.
On the same day, customs authorities at the Friendship Pass between Pingxiang and Vietnam’s Lang Son province urged traders to look for alternative shipping routes as its clearance capacity had been pushed to the limit “due to the development of the epidemic situation outside the country”.
Vietnamese dragon fruit imports have been suspended for four weeks. Photo: AFP
China has also imposed a four-week ban on dragon fruit imports from Friendship Pass, the largest road crossing between the two countries, until January 26 after the health authorities in Shanxi province said they had found coronavirus on packaging from Vietnam.
China is the largest trading partner with Vietnam, and the biggest market for its fruit and vegetables.
According to the Vietnamese agriculture ministry, in the first 11 months of 2021, the total import-export turnover of agriculture products between the two countries reached more than US$11.3 billion, a 19.5 per cent increase on the same period last year.
Vietnamese media reports say many exporters have had to turn back from the border because of the new controls and are now trying to sell the fruit at a lower price at home to limit their losses.