Vietnam has been added to the list of countries at high risk of having African swine fever-contaminated pork, so the fines for people found bringing pork products from Vietnam into Taiwan have been raised, the Council of Agriculture said on Tuesday.
The council’s statement followed an announcement by the Vietnamese Department of Animal Health earlier in the day that African swine fever had been found in pigs on three family farms in the provinces of Hung Yen and Thai Binh, and that more than 200 pigs had been culled.
Fines for those bringing pork from countries affected by African swine fever were increased on Dec. 17 last year to NT$200,000 (US$6,488) for a first offense and NT$1 million for second offenses.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Airports nationwide began inspecting the carry-on luggage of all passengers arriving from Vietnam on Saturday last week, after a pork sandwich carried by a traveler arriving at Tainan Airport from Ho Chi Minh City on Feb. 5 tested positive for African swine fever.
The passenger was fined NT$30,000 for contravening customs regulations, but anyone now arriving from Vietnam with meat products in their luggage would be subject to the higher fines for African swine fever, council Deputy Minister Huang Chin-cheng (黃金城) said on Tuesday.
Vietnam rears an average of 30 million pigs annually and three quarters of all meat consumed there is pork, he said.
Smuggling and international travelers carrying meat products in and out of Vietnam were exacerbating the problem there, he said.
As a precaution, airports nationwide would begin checking the luggage of all passengers arriving from Phnom Penh, as Cambodia borders Vietnam, Huang said.
The Central Emergency Operation Center for African swine fever said the virus has been found in an increasing number of pork products from China.
The most recent incident involved sausages discarded at an airport by a passenger arriving from Fuzhou, China, it said.
The virus was confirmed in one case in October, two in November, four in December, 11 in January and eight so far this month, the center said.
Vietnam is now the third Asian country to be affected by African swine fever, after China and Mongolia.
A UN official in September last year said that it was inevitable that the disease would spread from China to its neighboring countries, most likely through infected pork products being transported across borders.
Additional reporting by agencies
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,912) for advertisements that exceed its approved business scope, requiring the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license may be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter enforcement of Chinese e-commerce platforms and measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan in response to US President Donald Trump’s heavy tariffs on China. The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee met today to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has fined Taobao NT$1.2 million (US$36,900) for advertisements that exceeded its approved business scope and ordered the Chinese e-commerce platform to make corrections in the first half of this year or its license would be revoked. Lawmakers have called for stricter supervision of Chinese e-commerce platforms and more stringent measures to prevent China from laundering its goods through Taiwan as US President Donald Trump’s administration cracks down on origin laundering. The legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday met to discuss policies to prevent China from dumping goods in Taiwan, inviting government agencies to report on the matter. Democratic Progressive Party
RSS