The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said yesterday that it will review its regulations for Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certification and examine all GMP-labeled products within three months after edible oils with the certificate were found to contain illegal additives.
“We will review the rules for GMP certification within a month and a half, and we will examine all 3,682 GMP products within three months,” Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang (梁國新) said at a meeting at the legislature’s Economic Committee in Taipei.
Liang said the 3,682 products include 129 oil products as well as 376 juice and soy sauce-related goods.
LAX
Legislators yesterday panned the ministry for lax supervision of the government-funded private organization that issues GMP certificates. They also urged the ministry to remove Wei Ying-chun (魏應充), chairman of Wei Chuan Food Corp (味全) and one of the founders of Ting Hsin International Group (頂新集團), from his position as chairman of the organization because Ting Hsin was found to have used adulterated oil in products it made for Wei Chuan, a local brand-name food company.
Liang said the chairman of the organization was appointed by its members, who are company representatives, but the ministry would make the necessary changes after further investigation.
Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔), who also participated in the committee yesterday, said it is crucial for the ministry to address consumer doubts.
“We have to control the quality of food products immediately, otherwise we will not be able to restore people’s confidence, which will affect private consumption,” he said.
Even so, Kuan said he is confident that the nation will post 2 percent economic growth this year if the government can begin implementation of its “free economic pilot zones” plan.
PROCESSED
However, legislators are concerned that the pilot zones could hurt the local agricultural sector, as the plan allows companies to purchase agricultural materials from China and overseas to be processed in the zones.
“There might be fewer companies willing to buy agricultural materials from Taiwanese farmers,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said.
Although 830 agricultural products from China are prohibited from entering Taiwan, companies can still use Chinese produce as raw materials in the zones and sell the processed end products to the local market providing these products are not on the list of 830 items, DPP Legislator Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last