John Key

Beijing, April 16 NZPA - China has asked New Zealand to assist in sorting out China's confidence crisis over food safety.

Prime Minister John Key met Premier Wen Jiabao overnight (NZ time) with all pomp and ceremony a welcome in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing can muster.

Speaking afterwards Mr Key said it was a "tremendous' meeting in which Premier Wen said relations between the two countries were the best in our history and thought they could grow even closer.

The pair had looked at building agricultural links and sharing research capabilities.

It is the first visit by a New Zealand leader since the poisoned milk scandal swept through China.

Fonterra had a 43 percent stake in Sanlu before it became the first of 22 Chinese dairy companies to reveal its products contained high levels of melamine, the chemical blamed for the deaths of six babies and urinary problems in nearly 300,000 others.

Mr Key said he had told Premier Wen that he wanted Fonterra to be welcome in China

"I indicated a strong desire for Fonterra to play an active role in the development of the dairy industry and agricultural industry here in China," Mr Key said

"Premier Wen said as far as they were concerned they saw Sanlu as a single isolated incident that was behind us now... In particular he made reference to wanting to work with New Zealand in the development of food safety standard."

Despite its involvement, Fonterra's exports to China have boomed since the poisoned milk scandal because Chinese households have been seeking safe food.

Mr Key was told that Chinese farmers were under pressure because of the lack of public confidence and the local minister of agriculture was under extreme pressure.

"Because of the food safety concerns there has been a lot of product coming out of New Zealand so that has put a lot of pressure on the Chinese farmers and the way we can resolve that is for New Zealand to play a very active part here and for New Zealand to work very constructively to work with Chinese farmers and authorities to deliver safer food standards."

Premier Wen said the one year old trade deal between the two countries was working well and repeated China's commitment to implement it over the coming years, despite other countries looking at putting up trade barriers.

Since the deal was signed two way trade between the countries has grown significantly

Mr Key travels to Shanghai today for a series of business focused events.

(Ian Llewellyn travelled to China with the assistance of the Asia New Zealand Foundation)

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