The Ministry of Health and Welfare has requested that all Japanese food imports carry place-of-origin documentation in addition to radiation inspection certificates. Japan has reacted strongly to the regulations, saying that there is no scientific basis for Taiwan’s tightening of controls. Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Yoshimasa Hayashi said Tokyo would take decisive action against the measures and might lodge a formal complaint with the WTO.
Though the public should lend their support to the government’s tightening of controls, the ministry was too hasty in expanding the controls without having first carried out a detailed risk assessment and without preparing a coherent strategy.
Given that a succession of nations are exploring whether to relax controls on Japanese food imports — Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, Chile and others have removed restrictions initiated after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster in March 2011 — the government should have been more cautious in considering whether its actions might negatively impact Taiwanese businesses.
Farmed eels from Yunlin County were recently found to contain residues of “leuco-malachite green,” a potentially carcinogenic toxin. The government maintains that this was an isolated case, but the fisheries industry is concerned that Japan may use it as an excuse to carry out inspection of Taiwanese eel imports and restrict the import of such eels in what is Taiwan’s biggest market for them.
The government needs to formulate a plan to avoid other industries being damaged by the fallout, which could further anger the public.
In the past four years, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Department of Health and its successor have examined 68,962 imported Japanese food products. Of these, 207 were found to contain trace levels of radiation. However, the radiation did not exceed the permissible levels set by either nation’s government. An international report that examined the radioactivity of food products showed that, apart from the occasional instance of wild boar and mushrooms, radiation levels have returned to where they were prior to the nuclear accident.
In a recent case concerning improperly labeled Japanese food products, it was unclear whether the origin of the problem was the Taiwanese importer or Japanese businesses. The government must therefore carry out a full and fair investigation and, if necessary, amend the law to increase the effectiveness of checking procedures.
Japan has adopted a tough stance on this issue. Taiwan is Japan’s third-largest export market for agricultural and food products. If these new import restrictions become long-term measures, Japan’s position in the Taiwanese market could be supplanted by competitors such as New Zealand or the US.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet is promoting a policy to boost agricultural exports, including doubling exports to ¥1 trillion (US$8.27 billion) by 2020. Based purely on economic and trade considerations, surely the two sides can come to an agreement without taking the case to the WTO.
Whether the two sides are able to swiftly reach a compromise, and whether the Japanese side is able to understand Taiwanese public opinion and the degree of concern over the false labeling of food products, rest upon implementing preventive measures and working to rapidly bring this dispute to a close, so that normal trade may resume.
Du Yu is chief executive officer of the Chen-Li Task Force for Agricultural Reform.
Translated by Edward Jones
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