The executive branch last night asked the legislature to hold a provisional session to vote on a bill that would allow beef imports containing residues of the livestock feed additive ractopamine after the legislative session ended at 6pm yesterday without voting on the beef issue.
The Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan issued the call following a three-hour meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Premier Sean Chen (陳冲), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and top officials on solutions to the stalled draft bill on beef -containing ractopamine residues.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) last night said the caucus would table a motion for an extra session next week to pass the amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法).
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“The beef issue will be the only subject discussed at the provisional session. We hope that it can be held next week,” he said.
After the KMT caucus submits the proposal, Wang must call an informal meeting for lawmakers to decide whether to hold the extra session.
The conclusion reached at the meeting called by Ma last night departed from the KMT caucus’ earlier position, with KMT lawmakers supporting a proposal at a caucus meeting held on Thursday to ask the Executive Yuan to issue an executive order to relax the ban on beef containing ractopamine.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), said the caucus would do everything in its power to block the amendment.
“It is unavoidable that there will be a fight if the KMT tries to ram through the amendment,” Ker said.
In light of the failure of the legislature to pass the amendment yesterday, the last day of the legislative session, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) expressed the hope that “the Executive Yuan will finally be able to bring this to a speedy resolution.”
“We maintain that US beef is safe and remind Taiwanese consumers that millions of people in the US, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Korea, and many other countries around the world have continued to enjoy US beef without a single report of ill effects linked to ractopmaine,” AIT spokesperson Sheila Paskman said.
The AIT was “disappointed that some in Taiwan chose to make the discussion about US beef a political issue and intentionally provide misleading and in many cases false information to political gains,” Paskman said.
Earlier yesterday Ma reiterated his expectation that the issue of US beef imports would be resolved as soon as possible when meeting with Harvard University professor Ezra Vogel at the Presidential Office. He said that lifting the ban on the import of US beef containing ractompaine residue would facilitate Taiwan’s trade relations with the US and other countries.
Ma said this was a “critical moment” for Taiwan to finally deal with the issue of US beef imports, so as to speed up trade negotiations with the US and other trade partners.
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
ELITE UNIT: President William Lai yesterday praised the National Police Agency’s Special Operations Group after watching it go through assault training and hostage rescue drills The US Navy regularly conducts global war games to develop deterrence strategies against a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, aimed at making the nation “a very difficult target to take,” US Acting Chief of Naval Operations James Kilby said on Wednesday. Testifying before the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, Kilby said the navy has studied the issue extensively, including routine simulations at the Naval War College. The navy is focused on five key areas: long-range strike capabilities; countering China’s command, control, communications, computers, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and targeting; terminal ship defense; contested logistics; and nontraditional maritime denial tactics, Kilby
RSS