Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基) yesterday took on Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials over the government’s proposed lifting of the ban on imports of 830 Chinese agricultural products for processing in the proposed free economic pilot zones, saying their concerns were based on “misinformation.”
The minister told a press conference in Taipei that he was surprised at the questions raised by Greater Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Lee Yung-te (李永得) and Greater Tainan Deputy Mayor Yen Chun-tso (顏純左), both of the DPP, challenging the proposed liberalization policy that he said would “boost the development of agriculture.”
People should not view liberalization as a scheme to destroy the nation’s agricultural sector, he said.
“There is no chance whatsoever that we would be able to tap international market for our agricultural products if the project doesn’t go ahead as planned, the best we could hope for is that the ‘status quo’ is maintained,” Chen said.
Under the proposed project, which is stalled in the legislature, 830 agricultural products from China banned from being imported to Taiwan would be allowed to enter the pilot zones to be processed as food products.
Chen rejected the idea that food products made of agricultural materials imported from China should bear labels indicating the origin of the material to distinguish them from those made of Taiwan-grown agricultural ingredients.
Critics of the project have requested the labeling out of concern that products made of Chinese ingredients bearing the “Made in Taiwan (MIT)” brand would ruin the credibility of MIT products.
Citing the WTO’s “substantial transformation” on non-originating material rule, Chen said Taiwan is considered the country of origin of food products as long as they are manufactured in Taiwan.
National Chung Hsing University economist Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲), one of the critics, said he agreed with the minister that “substantial transformation” should be applicable to food products for exports, but added “that doesn’t mean that the government couldn’t require the labeling indicating the origin of material on products for domestic sale.”
The government should revise the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法) to require the labeling on food products for domestic sale because consumers have the right to know where the material used in food products is from, Chen Chi-chung told the Taipei Times.
To address concerns that imports of Chinese agricultural materials for use in food processing in the zones would squeeze out domestically grown agricultural products, Chen Bao-ji said that the government would require a food producer to buy locally grown material equivalent to the amount it purchases from China. He said the rule would be stipulated in a bylaw after the pilot zone draft bill is passed by the legislature.
Chen Chi-chung said the rule should be written into the pilot zone draft act to ensure its enforcement.
“More importantly, since producers in the pilot zones would enjoy tax breaks, the government should demand that they use locally grown agricultural products as their main sources of material and only import material from China when there is insufficient supply in Taiwan,” Chen Chi-chung said.
CHANGING LANDSCAPE: Many of the part-time programs for educators were no longer needed, as many teachers obtain a graduate degree before joining the workforce, experts said Taiwanese universities this year canceled 86 programs, Ministry of Education data showed, with educators attributing the closures to the nation’s low birthrate as well as shifting trends. Fifty-three of the shuttered programs were part-time postgraduate degree programs, about 62 percent of the total, the most in the past five years, the data showed. National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) discontinued the most part-time master’s programs, at 16: chemistry, life science, earth science, physics, fine arts, music, special education, health promotion and health education, educational psychology and counseling, education, design, Chinese as a second language, library and information sciences, mechatronics engineering, history, physical education
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday appealed to the authorities to release former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) from pretrial detention amid conflicting reports about his health. The TPP at a news conference on Thursday said that Ko should be released to a hospital for treatment, adding that he has blood in his urine and had spells of pain and nausea followed by vomiting over the past three months. Hsieh Yen-yau (謝炎堯), a retired professor of internal medicine and Ko’s former teacher, said that Ko’s symptoms aligned with gallstones, kidney inflammation and potentially dangerous heart conditions. Ko, charged with