Jun 20, 2008, 3:17 GMT
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia has temporarily stopped all seafood exports to the European Union following threats of a total ban after checks on local fisheries revealed lacking health standards, reports said Friday.
Malaysian health minister Liow Tiong Lai said local health authorities would spend the next six weeks inspecting and improving the health standards of fishery companies exporting seafood to the EU in order to avoid a total ban.
'We will then re-list ourselves to become exporters to the EU. It will take at least three months for us to be re-listed,' Liow was quoted as saying by the Star daily.
The EU has threatened a total ban on Malaysian seafood following random checks in April on nine companies exporting fishery products which were found lacking in health standards and practices.
Liow said the EU's Directorate General for Health and Consumer Protection would conduct another round of inspections on the fishing companies before seafood would be allowed to be exported again.
Malaysia is set to lose more than 1 billion ringgit (29.5 million dollars) during the three-month wait, industry experts were quoted as saying in the report.
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