chinese quarantine and testing procedures for salmon in june 2011 norway stated that after years of steady increase in its exports of fresh salmon to china exports had dropped significantly due to testing and quarantine procedures implemented by china on 13 december 2010. these were followed by strengthened inspection and quarantine procedures as stated in notice no. 9 2011 which had not been notified to the wto. the norwegian monitoring programmes in operation since 1998 showed no presence of illegal substances in the fish products and had consistently documented low levels of contaminants. chinas measures did not seem to be based on scientific principles or a risk assessment and norway requested an explanation for these measures and how they complied with the sps agreement. the united states supported norway and expressed their concern that china had implemented aqs1q order no. 9 notice on strengthening inspection and quarantine on imported salmon in february 2011 without having notified the measure. the stated objective of this notice was to safeguard consumer health however no risk assessment had been provided. the united states requested a copy of chinas risk assessment and requested that china rescind aqs1q order no. 9s documentation requirements until the measure had been notified. china was also asked to explain how the requirement for the exporters vessel name and number related to ensuring that wild salmon was safe for human consumption. the european union also called for transparency in all sps matters. china clarified that since 2010 the entry and exit inspection and quarantine bureaus in china had detected fish lice pathogenic micro-organisms and excess veterinary drug residues in imported chilled salmon. in an attempt to protect their consumers china had published a notice to strengthen the inspection and quarantine of imported salmon based on the administrative measure for inspection quarantine and supervision on import and export of feed and feed additives and its revision and amendment measures of imports and exports of aquatic products which were notified to the wto. the measures taken were covered by these laws and regulations without any new element and therefore it was unnecessary to make another notification. china had already responded to norways concerns when it raised them in march 2011 during norways visit to chinas aqsiq and hoped that those replies addressed its concerns. china was open to further bilateral discussions with the european union and the united states on this topic. norway stressed that ensuring seafood safety is a major objective of norwegian authorities who monitor the presence of undesirable substances microorganisms and parasites in wild-caught and farmed seafood as well as fish feed. norway had been performing a risk assessment on seafood based on studies of the most commercially important fish species in norway. stakeholders often held conflicting views on food safety and on the benefits of seafood and it was important to distinguish between fact and fiction. norway was keen to further collaborate in this area with china. china observed that norways concerns focussed on the detailed testing methods however these purely technical matters had to be discussed among scientists. in march scientists from both countries had held detailed discussions on this issue and almost all of norways concerns had been clarified. china was disappointed with the lack of norwegian efforts to resolve this issue as when any cargo was identified to be carrying disease the problem was supposed to be rectified by the exporter. china welcomed norways and other interested parties participation in bilateral discussions as this issue had been on-going for two years. in october 2011 norway provided an update on recent developments in chinas measures on salmon in particular the new testing and quarantine measures on fresh salmon. the measures introduced in december 2010 by the implementation of aqsiq order nu