The Cabinet yesterday reinstated a ban on US beef after the US Department of Agriculture confirmed a second case of mad-cow disease.
"For everybody's safety, we hereby announce an end to imports of US beef because of a second confirmed case of mad-cow disease in the US," Cabinet Spokesman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said.
Cho urged the public not to panic and said that all US beef in stock at present could be safely eaten because all of the beef was boneless meat from cows younger than 30 months, unlike the cow that has sparked the latest scare.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"However, because a new case of mad-cow disease has been confirmed, we must announce the ban on US beef," Cho said.
Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said that the government was simply taking all necessary precautions to prevent the potential spread of the disease, but that current stocks should be of no concern.
"British research and experiments showed that it is quite impossible for younger cows to have mad-cow disease, and that is why we only imported those cows that are younger than 30 months," Hsieh said. "The meat we have at shops now is safe. No problem."
Bureau of Food Safety director Chen Lu-hung (
"Countries like Canada and Mexico say that they will continue to import US beef despite confirmation of the disease," Chen said.
The first case of the disease in the US was confirmed on Dec. 24, 2003. Taiwan banned US beef a week later.
The US Department of Agriculture then filed a request to Taiwan's Department of Health on March 29 last year to lift the ban, but the request was not granted until April 16 this year.
The decision to lift the ban has been criticized because of concerns that the disease could spread to Taiwan anyway.
Current regulations require that US beef imports be boneless meat from cows younger than 30 months.
American Institute in Taiwan Director Douglas Paal helped to promote US beef on June 16 while attending the 2005 Taipei International Food Show.
"American beef is 100-percent safe," he had said in Mandarin, eating slices of beef for the media.
Taiwan is the sixth-largest market for US beef, and was worth US$325 million in 2003. Japan is the No.1 market, and was worth NT$1.4 billion in the same year.
Several members of the Consumers' Foundation yesterday harshly criticized the Department of Health's earlier decision to lift the ban.
The foundation urged the government to recall all US beef already on store shelves "in consideration of local consumers' health," adding that it might mobilize consumers to boycott US beef if the government did not do so.
Foundation vice chairman Cheng Hung-jen (程宏仁) said that nobody could be certain about the incubation period, and he claimed the lifting of the ban had come about through "political considerations."
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