Su Wei-shuo (蘇偉碩) yesterday filed rumor-spreading and libel charges against Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) over statements about US trade policy concerning pork.
Su, a former physician at the Tainan branch of Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital and a member of an alliance of groups that opposes the use leanness-enhancing agents on pigs, including ractopamine, filed the charges at the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office.
Su quoted the COA as saying in a news release that Taiwan stands to lose beneficial trade arrangements if a referendum today to prohibit imports of pork products containing traces of ractopamine is successful.
Photo: Chien Li-chung, Taipei Times
The document claimed that the US ended preferential tariff treatment for Thailand after Bangkok issued a similar ban on such pork, he said.
Citing a petition to the US Trade Representative (USTR) from the Des Moines, Iowa, and Washington-based National Pork Producers Council, Su said that the real reason for the US’ displeasure at Thailand was “discriminatory trade practices” against US pork and a US$617 million agricultural trade surplus.
Spreading false information ahead of the referendum puts Chen in breach of the Referendum Act (公民投票法), Su said.
Comments by the COA implying that Su made statistical errors while discussing Taiwan-US pork trade and has impeded Taiwan’s economic progress are libelous, he said.
The COA cited the USTR National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers as saying that Thailand’s failure to follow international safety standards on pork was why it lost preferential tariffs last year.
The council has rigorously followed the law and done its duty in explaining the implications of the referendum to the public, the COA said, adding that it would follow the will of the people as the law requires.
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