As Beijing continues to block Taiwan’s international participation and force other nations to accept its “one China” principle, Taiwan’s best hope of escaping international isolation is to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and sign a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the US.
Surprisingly, Taiwan itself is blocking these developments. CPTPP accession is impeded by the nation’s ban on food imports from five Japanese prefectures following the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster, and an FTA with the US is hindered by a ban on US pork imports.
The US has insisted that Taiwan lift the ban before FTA talks can begin and Japan has demanded that Taiwan lift the food product import ban. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s younger brother even visited Taiwan to help bring this about, but he had to return home empty-handed.
Here are a few reasons Taiwan’s position is unreasonable.
First, imports of food products from the five Japanese prefectures are banned because they might be tainted by radiation following the nuclear disaster and could harm public health in Taiwan.
Nothing is more important than public health, but the issue is that Taiwan and China are the only nations in the world that maintain such a ban. Is every other nation except for China wrong? Are people of other nationalities not afraid of eating “irradiated food” because they are less sensitive to it than Chinese and Taiwanese?
Second, “irradiated food” is the “mighty” populist invention of a “high-class Mainlander” intended to malign Japan. China’s reason for banning Japanese food product imports is very simple: It does not like Japan. Will Taiwan emulate China on this issue?
Third, China has reportedly told Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai that the ban is soon to be lifted as a gift in connection to talks between the two nations’ leaders. If China lifts the ban before Taiwan does, it will embarrass Taiwan and give other nations the impression that Taiwan behaves like China.
An even more worrying issue is how Japan would respond. It is almost certain that contact with both Japan’s government and public would cool.
Fourth, Taiwan’s position on the ban on US pork imports also makes no sense. Americans eat US pork, and they are not alone: People in other Western nations eat it, and both Japan and South Korea are allowing the import of US pork in which ractopamine residue does not exceed 10 parts per billion (ppb).
Taiwan is alone in demanding a complete absence of ractopamine, which only highlights its stubbornness on this issue. This has caused “frustration” on the part of the US and affected trust between the two nations.
The UN’s Codex Alimentarius Commission has passed a resolution stating that ractopamine levels of 10ppb are safe for human consumption. Is the UN wrong and Taiwan right?
The question of how to protect the rights of Taiwan’s hog farmers is a different matter, and while it is the government’s responsibility, stubbornly insisting on zero levels really is tantamount to trying to force the government to do something it cannot or will not do.
Hopefully the public and opposition leaders will put the nation first and deal with the issues of radiation-contaminated food products and food with ractopamine in accordance with international standards so that Taiwan can join the CPTPP and enter into an FTA with the US sooner rather than later.
Huang Tien-lin is a national policy adviser and former managing director and chairman of First Commercial Bank.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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