The US has once again raised concerns over Taiwan’s ban on its pork and beef products, highlighting the issue in the Office of the US Trade Representative’s (USTR) 2018 Trade Policy Agenda and 2017 Annual Report, and refocusing attention on what has been an obstacle to the two nations signing a free-trade agreement.
In the annual report, the USTR underscored US concerns about Taiwan’s agricultural policies, which it said “are not based upon science.”
That refers to Taiwan’s “zero tolerance” policy on US pork imports containing the leanness-enhancing feed additive ractopamine that was adopted due to lingering concerns about the drug’s safety and strong opposition from local pig farmers.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
One of the main priorities for the US in its trade with Taiwan is to remove “Taiwan’s barriers to US pork products and certain US beef products produced using ractopamine,” the report said.
The use of the feed additive is authorized in the US by the US Food and Drug Administration, with about 60 percent to 80 percent of all US pigs fed ractopamine, which explains Washington’s eagerness to eliminate the ban.
While Taiwan has not amended its ban on ractopamine in pork products, which has been in effect since 2006, it relented on its ban of the chemical in beef products in 2012, allowing imports with a maximum residue level of 10 parts per billion.
Ractopamine remains banned in all 27 EU member states, China and Russia.
Another priority for the US is to remove “other barriers to US beef offal products” in Taiwan, the report said.
On the subject of agricultural policy, the report said the US is also focused on Taiwan’s rice procurement systems, restrictions on potatoes with greening, its regulatory process for setting maximum pesticide residue limits, and market access barriers facing US agricultural biotechnology products and certified US organic products.
The report indicated that the US would continue to work under the US-Taiwan Trade and Investment Framework Agreement and through the WTO to address the issues, which are important to US stakeholders.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS