Retailers that sell uncertified imported insect repellents for pets and imported pesticides such as those used to kill cockroaches will be fined up to NT$60,000 and NT$300,000, the Environmental Protection Administration said yesterday.
Chen Shu-ling (陳淑玲), a section chief at the EPA's Environmental Sanitation and Toxic Waste Management Department, said the administration has been monitoring auction sites on Yahoo-Kimo and PCHome for sales of the repellents and pesticides.
They found that some sellers would purchase the items overseas, then post them for sale on the Internet, she said.
She emphasized that all imported pesticides and repellents must receive permits from the environmental administration before they can be sold to the public.
Chen noted that the administration must review and register the ingredients contained in the pesticides and repellents as they may contain chemicals forbidden for use in Taiwan.
"We have already issued 840 valid permits for the pesticides and repellents and have published their brand names on our Web site," she said. "It's really not necessary to buy them overseas."
Chen added the administration will first give warnings to sellers who are first-time perpetrators.
They will be penalized if they are proven to have committed the crime a second time, however.
According to the EPA, the administration has asked both Yahoo-Kimo and PCHome to inform their members about the laws regulating pesticides and repellents.
Travelers are now allowed to bring in less than 1 liter or 1kg of such products when they return from abroad and the products must be reserved for personal use, not put up for sale.
If travelers bring in pesticides and repellents that are not on permissible items lists, approval from the EPA must be received before the drugs can be allowed to pass through the customs.
If the amount travelers bring in exceeds the 1kg or 1 liter limit, the excess amount must be returned to the country of origin or left with customs officials.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry