PFP has beef with DOH over mad cows

Lawmakers the People First Party (PFP) threatened yesterday to boycott the budget for the Department of Health (DOH) should the top governmental health affairs agency continue to be "negligent" in not overseeing the safety of imported beef from the US.

A second case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease, in the US was confirmed by a British laboratory on Friday, prompting the government to reimpose a ban on imports of US beef from Saturday.

The DOH decided at the same time that US beef already on store shelves in Taiwan is safe and does not need to be removed.

The Consumers' Foundation criticized the DOH harshly Saturday for the department's decision to reopen the Taiwan market to US beef in mid-April, despite concerns expressed by the Council of Agriculture while Japan and South Korea did not do the same thing.

Consumers' Foundation Vice Chairman Cheng Hung-jen (程宏仁) also said that after the second case of mad cow disease was confirmed, the DOH still did not react quickly to demand that all US beef already on local store shelves be recalled. Claiming that the DOH's policy is "absurdly wrong," Cheng said that the foundation will hold DOH officials responsible if any local people are affected by the disease.

In a press conference held at the Legislative Yuan yesterday, PFP legislators Tsai Sheng-chia (蔡勝佳) and Lin Teh-fu noted that nobody is sure how long the incubation period of mad cow disease is and lashed out at the DOH's lifting of the ban on imports of US beef in mid-April as a decision made out of "political considerations."

Tsai the DOH's motive and wisdom of reopening Taiwan's doors to US beef two months ago when Japan and South Korea were keeping their bans in place.

Noting the DOH still decided to reopen Taiwan to US beef imports in April despite Council of Agriculture officials' concerns, Tsai said that DOH officials should take the full responsibility now that a second US case of mad cow disease has been confirmed.

If consumers were to come down with mad cow disease after eating imported US beef, they should be entitled to national compensation since this would be a repercussion caused by wrong government policies, Tsai said.

Lin the DOH officials for quoting US beef exporters, even liaison officials, as having guaranteed that US beef is safe despite that a second US case of mad cow disease was still under investigation, asking whether or not it was only a question of what the US said.

Chin Hui-chu (秦慧珠), a PFP whip at the Legislative Yuan, claimed that the Executive Yuan decided to reopen US beef imports soon after President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said that US beef was safe and Taiwan should re-introduce US beef into the domestic market.

Chin a disclosure of the administration's decision-making process concerning the beef reopening to find out who was the real decision-maker.

Taiwan imports of US beef, live cattle and all related products in December 2003 after the discovery in Washington State of a single BSE case, the first US case of mad cow disease.

The country lifted the ban on US boneless beef from animals under 30 months of age April 16.