The National Security Council secretary-general, Su Chi (蘇起), yesterday apologized for causing panic over the government’s relaxed beef policy.
Su said miscommunication had led to public panic, and that he regretted this and would seek to avoid future misunderstandings.
However, the government does not expect to renegotiate the protocol it signed with the US, he told the legislature’s Judiciary, Organic Laws and Statutes Committee. If Taiwan succeeded in reopening negotiations with Washington, South Korea might make similar demands, he said.
Su said many interests must be considered in dealing with Washington, including investment protection, possible future visa-free entry for Taiwanese traveling to the US and a long-sought extradition treaty, among others.
However, as Taiwan’s restrictions on US beef were Washington’s top concern, Su said negotiators addressed this matter first.
The “South Korea model” was the “politically safest” approach, he said, adding that he respected the legislature’s plan to amend the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) to ban certain bovine products that may be “health-threatening.”
Su expressed hope, however, that the revision would not violate the protocol with Washington or WTO and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) regulations, as this would undermine Taiwan’s credibility and its relationship with the US. It would also deal a blow to the country’s overall development, Su said.
Su said the protocol should still have greater authority than any amendment, but that a constitutional interpretation by the Council of Grand Justices might be needed.
He said he was not against the legislature ratifying the protocol and he would respect the legislature’s decision.
“Our goal is to ensure public safety and expand Taiwan’s international space,” he said.
Su dismissed speculation that Washington had warned the executive branch against any measures that would counter the protocol, saying the US “has yet to respond.”
Meanwhile, the office of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday criticized the government for relaxing restrictions on US beef, calling President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) “incompetent” and Department of Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) “shameless.”
In a statement, the office condemned a CTiTV report that said Yaung had privately revealed that Chen pressured the health department to relax the beef ban before leaving office.
Chen’s office said that in March last year, near the end of his term, Washington expressed hope that Chen would loosen the restrictions. Chen told US officials that as a new president had been elected, his government was a “caretaker” and should not make major decisions, the statement said.
The decision to relax the beef policy was made by the new administration, the statement said.
Yet after the public outcry, the new government “did not examine itself to determine the problem but instead shifted blame onto the former government,” it said. “This not only reveals Ma’s incompetence, but also Yaung’s shamelessness.”
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also panned Yaung for saying the DPP was manipulating the beef issue to win next month’s local government elections.
“If Yaung knew the beef issue would be used as a election ploy then he, as a health professional, should have had the guts to say no to Ma’s policy of giving US beef full access to Taiwan’s [market],” DPP Spokesman Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) told a press conference.
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