After last year’s discovery of a series of contaminated drugs and food shipments from China, the Bush administration had decided to open three Food and Drugs Administration offices in the Asian country. However, the FDA’ efforts are slowed down by Chinese bureaucracy, a health official said on Friday, according to the Associated Press.

Even though the Chinese health officials seem to have agreed to accept FDA presence on Chinese territory, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must still give the go, and then start diplomatic visa approval procedures for the people that will work there.

Mike Leavitt, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, has said that he is sure that the approval will happen soon, and that the delay is caused only by the Chinese bureaucracy.

The three offices will be opened in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and will have a total of 13 employees. FDA’s mission in China will be to monitor the exports of food and drugs destined to reach the American Market.

Last year, a Chinese made medical component has led to hundreds of allergic reactions and 81 reported deaths.

FDA has also announced that it plans to create more offices as the ones in China throughout the world, and that the first two targets will be India and Central American countries.

At this moment, India is one of the largest exporters of drugs and drug ingredients for the US, and the American authorities are helping their Indian counterparts in creating their own agencies similar to the FDA as well as the laws needed to implement them.