More than 70 percent of the public are opposed to easing a ban on imports of beef containing ractopamine, People First Party legislative caucus whip Thomas Lee (李桐豪) said yesterday, citing an opinion poll, and he accused the government of lying in its arguments for easing the ban.
As the majority of the public are against easing the ban, “the Legislative Yuan, as a representative of public opinion, should respect that opinion,” Lee said.
Citing an opinion poll conducted on Monday and Tuesday, with more than 1,000 valid samples collected from citizens over 20 years of age, Lee said that as many as 72.5 percent of respondents are against lifting the ban.
“The UN’s Codex Alimentarius Commission is meeting next month and is probably not going to set a residual allowance level for ractopamine, which means ractopamine would not be allowed at all in food,” Lee said. “We should follow the Codex’s standards.”
He criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) proposals to amend the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) to set a maximum allowable level for racotopamine residues in food, supporting the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) “zero tolerance” revision proposals.
“Ractopamine should not be present at all, that’s the real Codex standard,” he said.
He also panned the government for saying that the EU had lost a lawsuit for banning ractopamine.
“The dispute between the EU and the US was about the use of estradinol, progesterone, testosterone, melengesterol acetate and zeranol. It did not include ractopamine at all,” Lee said. “The government should not intentionally spread such false information.”
He was referring to remarks by KMT spokesman Yin Wei (殷瑋) earlier this month on a lawsuit between the EU and the US on additives in food.
Commenting on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) remarks that lifting the ban is an important step toward talks on trade agreements, including the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, free-trade agreements and the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, Lee said that Taiwan had fallen behind and it was too late now to talk about such trade liberalization.
“The best way for the development of Taiwan is to adjust industrial structures,” he said.
Lee called on the government and the KMT not to try to force through amendments in the legislature, as “this is only going to create more disputes between different political camps.”
Meanwhile, a separate poll yesterday found that most people were willing to put the US beef controversy to a referendum, despite differing opinions on whether to adopt a pending international standard on ractopamine residues.
The survey, conducted on Monday and Tuesday by Taiwan Indication Survey Research (TISR), showed 60.9 percent of respondents, including more than half of pan-blue supporters, agreed to put the ractopamine residues issue to a referendum.
TISR general manager Tai Li-an (戴立安) said the poll showed that the public remained divided on the amount of allowable ractopamine residues, with 46.2 percent saying they agree with setting maximum residue levels in accordance with the final decision of the UN Codex Alimentarius Commission next month, while 40 percent disagreed.
The poll also showed President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) approval rating dipping to 22.4 percent, and only 29.2 percent of respondents deemed Ma as “credible.”
More than half — 53.4 percent — of those polled said they did not trust Ma as a leader, according to the survey.
The DPP was recognized by 37.9 percent of respondents, including 20 percent of pan-blue supporters, as the political party with the best performance in safeguarding public interests amid the US beef controversy.
The KMT finished a distant second at 14.8 percent, the poll showed.
The poll collected 1,009 samples and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
DEFENDING DEMOCRACY: Taiwan shares the same values as those that fought in WWII, and nations must unite to halt the expansion of a new authoritarian bloc, Lai said The government yesterday held a commemoration ceremony for Victory in Europe (V-E) Day, joining the rest of the world for the first time to mark the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. Taiwan honoring V-E Day signifies “our growing connections with the international community,” President William Lai (賴清德) said at a reception in Taipei on the 80th anniversary of V-E Day. One of the major lessons of World War II is that “authoritarianism and aggression lead only to slaughter, tragedy and greater inequality,” Lai said. Even more importantly, the war also taught people that “those who cherish peace cannot
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
‘FALLACY’: Xi’s assertions that Taiwan was given to the PRC after WWII confused right and wrong, and were contrary to the facts, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday called Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) claim that China historically has sovereignty over Taiwan “deceptive” and “contrary to the facts.” In an article published on Wednesday in the Russian state-run Rossiyskaya Gazeta, Xi said that this year not only marks 80 years since the end of World War II and the founding of the UN, but also “Taiwan’s restoration to China.” “A series of instruments with legal effect under international law, including the Cairo Declaration and the Potsdam Declaration have affirmed China’s sovereignty over Taiwan,” Xi wrote. “The historical and legal fact” of these documents, as well
RSS