March 23, 2000--China has agreed to import  oranges from the US, as of March 20 this year.

In a joint notice made public on March 23, the Ministry of  Agriculture, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic  Cooperation and the State Administration of Inspection for Import  and Export Commodities (AIIEC) agreed on orange imports from the states of Texas, Arizona, Florida (currently confined only to the  seven counties of Indian River, St.Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach,  Collier, Hendry and Lee) and California (currently confined only  to the six counties of Fresno, Tulare, Kern, Madera, Ventura and  Monterey).

According to the notice, the oranges destined for China must  come from orchards, carriers/packing plants and storage sheds  designated by both the AIIEC and the US Department of Agriculture  and under certain inspection requirements, details of which can be found at http://WWW.ciq.gov.cn.

The decision was made on the conclusion made by the Chinese  experts following their inspection of oranges from those areas to  evaluate the risk of pests entering the country, in line with  China's Law on Exit and Entry Quarantine of Animals and Plants and related regulations, and agreements between the governments of  China and the US, the notice says.