The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Industrial Development Bureau in 2015 abolished the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) food certification system while Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was president.
The move created a crisis, as it hindered Taiwan-made food from entering the international market. The problem has only worsened.
Unless the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quickly addresses the issue, it will continue to hurt the food industry and the government’s credibility, not to mention the harm it does to the national interest.
The Ma administration abolished GMP because the Taiwan Food GMP Development Association was headed by Wei Ying-chun (魏應充), an executive at Ting Hsin International Group, which was involved in a major cooking oil scandal.
The government replaced GMP with the Taiwan Quality Food certification, which was developed by the private sector.
However, the new scheme was not mandatory and had no international credibility.
To quickly get back on track with the international community, a number of Taiwanese food manufacturers turned to ISO and HACCP certification, but GMP is still the international benchmark.
The FDA has built a mechanism to issue free sale certificates to manufacturers and products, but the information they bear is simplistic compared with other countries and the online registration format is too rigid.
For example, a US free sale certificate details a product’s examination results and place of origin, while a Taiwanese one does not. As a result, Taiwanese food manufacturers are often required by food authorities overseas to submit additional examination documents to prove the efficacy of their certification. Some are even required to submit GMP certificates, which are no longer available in Taiwan. Under such circumstances, law-abiding companies are unable to proceed.
For many years, Taiwan was internationally known for its strict management of food and drugs, and it was easy for ASEAN members to issue import permits for Taiwanese GMP-certified food products, including health foods, or drug licenses.
Generally, GMP certification is valid for five years. Its absence means that it is difficult to extend or renew import permits and drug licenses. So Taiwanese products that were certified in 2015 are facing difficulties this year as they seek new permits or licenses in ASEAN members.
In negotiations with Indonesian authorities, the Taipei Economic and Trade Office in Indonesia helped Taiwanese cosmetics factories renew licenses using ISO and HACCP certifications, but it is a temporary accommodation for a single sector. The question is whether representative offices elsewhere in ASEAN will succeed at similar negotiations with each country over food, drugs and cosmetics in a timely manner.
FDA Director-General Wu Shou-mei (吳秀梅) has said that the agency is assessing the possibility of rebuilding a GMP system for health food products.
However, the process is time-consuming and most business operators remain worried.
Hopefully the FDA will promptly develop a strategy to save the Taiwanese food and biotechnology sectors’ international business opportunities.
Jesse Liau is president of a Taiwanese biotechnology company.
Translated by Eddy Chang
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
If you had a vision of the future where China did not dominate the global car industry, you can kiss those dreams goodbye. That is because US President Donald Trump’s promised 25 percent tariff on auto imports takes an ax to the only bits of the emerging electric vehicle (EV) supply chain that are not already dominated by Beijing. The biggest losers when the levies take effect this week would be Japan and South Korea. They account for one-third of the cars imported into the US, and as much as two-thirds of those imported from outside North America. (Mexico and Canada, while
The military is conducting its annual Han Kuang exercises in phases. The minister of national defense recently said that this year’s scenarios would simulate defending the nation against possible actions the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) might take in an invasion of Taiwan, making the threat of a speculated Chinese invasion in 2027 a heated agenda item again. That year, also referred to as the “Davidson window,” is named after then-US Indo-Pacific Command Admiral Philip Davidson, who in 2021 warned that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the PLA to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. Xi in 2017
RSS