Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayors and lawmakers yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Paty (KMT) of “playing politics” by launching protests against imports of US pork containing the controversial leanness-enhancing drug ractopamine.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Friday announced that Taiwan would ease restrictions on US beef and pork imports, while setting standards for pork containing ractopamine.
Tainan Mayor Huang Wei-che (黃偉哲) yesterday said that while there is much discussion about the issue in the media and online, most of it is not backed by scientific expertise, but is “more about playing politics and creating social discord.”
Photo: Wang Chun-chi, Taipei Times
Other countries already permit imports of US beef and pork containing ractopamine at safe levels, Huang said, adding that US beef has a total market share of about 35 to 40 percent in Japan and South Korea.
Pingtung County Commissioner Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said that his county government’s Department of Agriculture met with hog farmers over the weekend, as the county is a major pork producer.
“Many of the hog farmers and people in the livestock industry are quite receptive to opening up to US imports, as they are competing in different markets,” he said.
Most Taiwanese buy fresh meat at traditional markets, and frozen imported pork products are rare at such markets, Pan said.
“We will enforce the regulations and have clear country of origin labeling for meat products, which has been requested by consumers and meat producers, and also conforms to international food safety standards,” he said, adding that the main obstacle would be how to label fresh meat at traditional markets.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied KMT Deputy Secretary-General Hsieh Lung-chieh’s (謝龍介) accusation that US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar visited last month to lobby the government to ease restrictions on US pork and beef imports.
Hsieh, along with KMT Taipei City Councilor Yu Shu-hui (游淑慧), also said that Azar was “the boss of Elanco,” a company specializing in the production of ractopamine, and that from 2012 to 2017 Azar was an an executive at US pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co.
Elanco used to be a subsidiary of Eli Lilly.
The ministry said that Azar’s visit was to improve bilateral cooperation in the fight against COVID-19.
The KMT should discipline those responsible for circulating “malicious rumors to vilify one of the US president’s Cabinet members,” DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said.
“Before Azar took the health secretary job, Eli Lilly had already sold off the division that made pharmaceutical products for animals... The US health secretary also has no jurisdiction over the livestock industry and the use of ractopamine. The US government has a very strict rotating door policy on bureaucrats,” he said.
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