Taiwanese companies that fell victim to imports of tainted milk from China last year may consider seeking compensation through arbitration or a compromise, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
MAC Deputy Minister Liu Teh-shun (劉德勳) said that as legal proceedings were time-consuming and had run into “many difficulties,” the Department of Health (DOH) was considering meeting local companies to find out whether they would be interested in pursuing other alternatives.
“Arbitration and settlement are a comparatively easier way for Taiwanese firms to get faster and more direct access to their Chinese suppliers,” he said.
Liu said arbitration or settlement were not initially considered because seeking legal recourse was usually the first priority and they needed to sort out creditors’ rights and debts.
Liu made the remarks during a press conference on the progress of the four agreements signed with Beijing in November last year. The four agreements addressed direct sea links, daily charter flights, direct postal services and food safety.
The accord on food safety was signed following the panic sparked in September last year by China’s export of 25 tonnes of milk powder containing traces of the industrial chemical melamine last June.
Twelve Taiwanese firms have asked for NT$700 million (US$21 million) in compensation from Duqing, the Chinese supplier of the contaminated non-dairy creamer, and from Sanlu, the now bankrupt dairy firm that also sold melamine-contaminated milk powder.
China has not responded to Taiwan’s requests for compensation.
New Tai Milk Products, the Taiwan branch of New Zealand-based Fonterra Ltd, is one of the Taiwanese firms asking for compensation.
Chang Min-ling (張敏玲), an assistant manager at New Tai Milk, said she did not think the company would be able to get any compensation because Sanlu was already bankrupt.
“We just hope it will end soon. After all, the company [Sanlu] went belly up,” she said. “It is more important for us to forget about the past and focus on the future.”
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇), who has been tracking China’s handling of the melamine controversy, told the Taipei Times that the crux of the problem was the agreement itself — which she described as “hollow” and “insincere.”
“During the negotiation process, the administration was all smiles like it was proposing to a girl and was reluctant to say anything that would make her unhappy,” she said.
The government also kept the legislature in the dark about the process and its content, she said, adding that the DPP was willing to play the “bad cop” if it could help the administration secure a better deal.
One year after the four accords were signed, Tien said she saw what she did not want to see, but expected a year ago.
“The Taiwanese companies are like sexually harassed women who just want to forget about the whole thing and don’t want to hear anyone talk about it,” she said.
Tien also criticized the DOH for being reluctant to help local firms. She said while the DOH has hired legal advisers, they provide the services only to the department, not to the Taiwanese companies, which must find their own lawyers at their own expense.
Many have given up hope because legal proceedings are time-consuming and costly, she said.
Not many of them want to see their relationship with the Chinese government turn sour, she said, adding that there is nothing they can do in if their own government does not back them up.
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