The government’s decision to relax restrictions on imports of US beef came under fire yesterday, with Department of Health (DOH) Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) facing a particularly fierce barrage in the legislature.
Legislators from across party lines and consumer groups lined up to blast the government and threatened boycotts over last week’s announcement, while Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) announced the formation of a trade association that would boycott certain US beef products.
Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) said the central government would not prohibit local governments from boycotting US beef and beef products.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
“[The actions taken by Taipei City Government] to ensure the public’s health were understandable. We, too, always bear public health in mind. The DOH will implement the strictest inspections of US beef imports to make sure they will not harm health,” Su said.
In response to the concerns over lifting the ban on brains, eyes, skull and spinal cord from cattle less than 30 months of age, Su said the highest standards would be applied to ensure safety, adding that the government would adopt inspection procedures that would not violate the agreement with Washington.
“We believe that the international community will understand,” Su said.
Su said the DOH would take necessary measures to remind consumers of the potential risks of US beef and beef products and require importers to specify the place of origin on packages.
Speaking at a meeting at the legislature’s Social Welfare and Environmental Hygiene Committee to brief lawmakers on the talks that led to the lifting of restrictions on US beef, Yaung said he was disappointed that Taiwan was not able to secure a deal to open its market only to bone-in beef from cattle younger than 30 months.
“I am not happy with the result, but it is acceptable,” Yaung said.
The ban will be lifted to allow the entry of US bone-in beef, ground beef, some offal and processed beef from cattle younger than 30 months that have not been contaminated with “specific risk materials” beginning on Nov. 10. Washington had wanted Taiwan to open its market to all US beef products, he said.
The two sides managed to reach an initial consensus on the issue in June, agreeing that further talks should be held based on a South Korean formula, Yaung said.
The DOH announced on Friday that Taiwan would expand market access for US beef after officials of the two countries agreed the previous day in Washington to lift a partial ban on such imports.
“All negotiations involve concessions,” he said.
KMT Legislator Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said that the health minister should step down to take political responsibility for the new market-opening measures.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) said the Taiwanese negotiators, led by DOH Vice Minister Hsiao Mei-ling (蕭美玲), fought a losing battle, adding that when Taiwan agreed in 2006 to open its doors to US boneless beef, it attached the condition that if a single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, occurred in the US, Taiwan could immediately halt imports.
“This time we have allowed bone-in beef and organs and we cannot reimpose the ban unless the World Organization for Animal Health [OIE] decides the US is an infected area. This is absurd and a humiliation to the nation,” Huang said.
DPP Legislator Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi (蘇起) should be held accountable, accusing them of interfering with the decision-making process.
Meanwhile, Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister Chen Wu-hsiung (陳武雄) said at another legislative hearing that he and his family would eat US-imported beef and beef products, but he would not pressure the public to follow suit.
KMT Legislator Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) asked Chen how the government would be able to screen the safety of cow offal if Taiwanese traders apply to import brains, skulls, eyes and spinal cords as there are technical difficulties involved.
“Japan has barred imports of such offal on the grounds that there are technical difficulties in screening their safety,” Lu said.
Chen said the COA “will make every effort to keep those kinds of offal at bay.”
He declined to elaborate.
Meanwhile, the Consumers’ Foundation panned the government and said it might launch a boycott if the government does not reverse its decision.
“We’re protesting against the government’s decision on behalf of all consumers,” the foundation’s secretary-general, Gaston Wu (吳家誠), told reporters before entering the Legislative Yuan to visit caucus offices. “Whichever government institute made the decision — the DOH, the Executive Yuan, the Presidential Office, or even the National Security Council [NSC] — our government should make our health its priority, instead of sacrificing it for political interests.”
He also said that as the government apparently does not side with the public, the public must look out for themselves.
“We will not rule out the possibility of calling on all consumers to refuse to buy US beef products, and if a boycott on US beef is not enough, we may also launch a boycott on all US products,” Wu said.
Both DPP and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers supported Wu’s call.
“We will urge retailers not to sell US beef products and will mobilize the livestock industry and consumers to stage demonstrations to stop US beef from coming into the country,” Wang told a press conference after meeting with foundation representatives.
DPP caucus whip Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) panned the government for violating a legislative resolution proposed by the KMT caucus and adopted in January 2006 that requires the government to receive legislative approval before lifting the ban.
“The DPP caucus will refuse to review next year’s central government budget and refuse to take part in cross-party negotiations until the government acts according to [the resolution],” Chai said.
KMT caucus whip Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) said he would push for a resolution to ask the government to renegotiate the issue with the US.
“If the legislature fails to adopt such a resolution, we will launch a boycott of US beef,” he said as he met the Consumers’ Foundation.
DPP headquarters later issued a statement saying the party would work with lawmakers from other parties to pass the resolution. It also called on Ma and Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) to shoulder political responsibility and called on Su Chi to step down.
DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) also called for Su Chi’s resignation.
Tsai said the failed negotiations over US beef demonstrated the NSC’s inability to stand up to US pressure. She called for fresh negotiations.
The Kaohsiung City Government also issued a statement saying the deal should be renegotiated.
Chen Shun-sheng (陳順勝), a neurology professor at Chang Gung University, criticized Wu Den-yih and the DOH yesterday for giving the public “incorrect information” about brains, eyes, spinal cords and skulls from cattle less than 30 months old.
“The four products are not non-specific risk materials [non SRMs] and there is no promise in the protocol that they will be banned from import,” Chen said.
Chen urged the premier and DOH officials to explain why they had listed the four products as non SRMs as their risk coefficients are higher than cow tonsils and the distal ileum of the small intestine.
“According to the WHO and the OIE, the brains, eye, spinal cord, and skull are inedible, no matter what. Coefficient of variation risks for the products are higher than 25 percent or even between 60 percent and 70 percent, while those for tonsils and the distal ileum of the small intestine are less than between 1 percent and 2 percent,” Chen said.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Office said negotiations with Washington on beef were a matter of give-and-take, but stopped short of revealing exactly what the country had asked in exchange for partially lifting its ban.
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said Taiwan enjoys a trade surplus with the US and it is widely known that Washington wanted Taiwan to lift the ban on US beef.
“In negotiations, both sides have their own expectations,” he said. “We have been making a lot of money from the US over the years.”
Wang Yu-chi declined, however, to disclose the details of the negotiations, saying he was not in a position to do so. Speculation abounds that the liberalization was related to Washington’s willingness to resume talks on a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, which Vice Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday denied.
Wang Yu-chi said meeting participants agreed that government agencies should offer a clearer account of the rationale behind the decision, adding that the government used “stricter” standards than those adopted by the EU and the OIE.
While the opposition alleged that the Presidential Office or the NSC were behind the decision, Wang Yu-chi said it was a consensus and the “joint decision” of the Presidential Office, the NSC and the Executive Yuan, and that the liberalization would be conducive to bilateral trade.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA AND JIMMY CHUANG
Also See: Mayor Hau says Taipei City to launch boycott against select US beef products
The Taipei MRT is open all night tonight following New Year’s Eve festivities, and is offering free rides from nearby Green Line stations. Taipei’s 2025 New Year’s Eve celebrations kick off at Taipei City Hall Square tonight, with performances from the boy band Energy, the South Korean girl group Apink, and singers Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) and Faith Yang (楊乃文). Taipei 101’s annual New Year’s firework display follows at midnight, themed around Taiwan’s Premier12 baseball championship. Estimates say there will be about 200,000 people in attendance, which is more than usual as this year’s celebrations overlap with A-mei’s (張惠妹) concert at Taipei Dome. There are
LOOKING FOR WHEELS: The military is seeking 8x8 single-chassis vehicles to test the new missile and potentially replace the nation’s existing launch vehicles, the source said Taiwan is developing a hypersonic missile based on the Ching Tien (擎天) supersonic cruise missile, and a Czech-made truck has been tentatively selected as its launch vehicle, a source said yesterday. The Ching Tien, formerly known as Yun Feng (雲峰, “Cloud Peak”), is a domestically developed missile with a range of 1,200km to 2,000km being deployed in casemate-type positions as of last month, an official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The hypersonic missile to be derived from the Ching Tien would feature improved range and a mobile launch platform, while the latter would most likely be a 12x12 single chassis
UP AND DOWN: The route would include a 16.4km underground section from Zuoying to Fongshan and a 9.5km elevated part from Fongshan to Pingtung Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday confirmed a project to extend the high-speed rail (HSR) to Pingtung County through Kaohsiung. Cho made the announcement at a ceremony commemorating the completion of a dome at Kaohsiung Main Station. The Ministry of Transportation and Communications approved the HSR expansion in 2019 using a route that branches off a line from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung’s Zuoying District (左營). The project was ultimately delayed due to a lack of support for the route. The Zuoying route would have trains stop at the Zuoying Station and return to a junction before traveling southward to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝).
Parts of the nation, including in the south, could experience temperatures as low as 7°C early tomorrow morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. A strong continental cold air mass coupled with the effect of radiative cooling would bring cold weather to several northern cities and counties, and could even affect areas as far south as Tainan early tomorrow, the CWA said. Keelung, Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan, and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties would experience temperatures below 10°C until this evening, according to cold surge advisories issued by the weather agency. The weather across the nation is forecast to remain
RSS