The legislature’s Economics Committee yesterday agreed upon a non-binding resolution demanding the Ministry of Economic Affairs ban imports of several US and Canadian beef parts.
The resolution came after the ministry said it was planning to allow six selected US cattle parts, including bone marrow, blood, meat attached to the skull, cheek meat, gullet muscles and fat, to enter Taiwan.
The government’s move has angered the Consumers’ Foundation, which accused the ministry of labeling those beef parts as “not internal organs.”
According to the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), the import of internal cow organs from nations that have reported cases of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, has been banned for the past decade.
Minister of Economic Affairs John Deng (鄧振中) said he respected the legislature’s resolution, stressing the ministry would ensure the food safety of those beef parts imports.
“The six selected beef parts are not internal organs. We will make sure the products are safe to eat,” Deng told lawmakers during a question-and-answer session at the committee meeting.
The ministry has made public a set of import serial numbers for the six selected items on the Internet for one month to collect public opinion.
“After addressing public concerns, the ministry will hold discussions with the Ministry of Health and Welfare before officially allowing the selected beef parts to enter Taiwan,” Deng said.
Although the import value of these selected items would account for “very little” of the total beef imports from the US, the issue of US beef parts could still be one of the many reasons to influence the US’s support for Taiwan to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, he said, without elaborating.
In related news, Deng said Taiwan and the US are unlikely to hold the next round of talks under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) next month due to the US’s busy schedule.
“We wish for the talks to be held as soon as possible, but as far as I know, the US government is fully occupied in seeking Congress’ permission for fast-track negotiating authority on Trans-Pacific Partnership issues,” Deng said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six