Secretary for Environment & Ecology Tse Chin-wan met Japanese Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries Takahashi Mitsuo and Consul-General of Japan in Hong Kong Kenichi Okada today upon request and spoke about the discharge of nuclear-contaminated water in Japan.
 
Mr Tse reiterated at the meeting that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has come to the view that there is currently no guarantee from the Japanese authorities that their purification and dilution system can operate continuously and effectively in the long term, and that the discharge will not pose any potential risks to food safety and marine ecology.
 
Apart from pointing out that safeguarding food safety and public health in Hong Kong is the responsibility of the Hong Kong SAR Government, he stressed that corresponding precautionary measures must be taken.
 
Additionally, Mr Tse said that the Hong Kong SAR Government will closely monitor developments of the discharge and obtain more monitoring and scientific data to further examine the impact of the Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water discharge on food safety, and keep under review relevant counter measures.

In case anomalies are detected, the Hong Kong SAR Government does not preclude further tightening the scope of the import ban, he added.