Post-Election 2008: Opening to China may mean more quarantine efforts

Taiwan will face greater challenges to quarantine efforts in the near future, as the newly elected government is poised to be more open to China and the rest of the world, a group of academics and government officials said yesterday.

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who won a decisive victory in Saturday's presidential election, promised during the campaign that he would adopt more open business and trade policies related to China.

But a further opening to China could also threaten Taiwan's quarantine efforts to protect the country from contaminated or substandard animal and plant products from China, said Chen Chiu-nan, a professor in National Taiwan University's department of entomology.

Chen said China has plenty of room to improve the transparency of its quarantine efforts and disease information, noting that when Taiwanese specialists ask for information pertaining to China's quarantine policies and situations, Chinese authorities usually turn them down.

Chen urged the new administration, set to be sworn in May 20, to develop a common understanding on technical issues with other countries in the world under the framework of the WTO and the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).

The technical issues Chen was referring to included verification, personnel exchanges and training, and quarantine standards and risk assessment.

Lee Wei-chen, director of the Graduate Institute of Veterinary Pathobiology at National Chung Hsing University, said the gradual opening of international trade among countries is an irreversible trend, but Taiwan must first negotiate with China and other foreign countries under the WTO framework before approving new trade.

"No entry should be allowed for those goods considered to be substandard," Lee said.

Meanwhile, Yeh Ying (葉瑩), deputy director of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine under the Council of Agriculture, said existing policies and measures on cross-strait exchanges of travel, and animal and plant quarantine are expected to remain unchanged during the transition of power over the next two months.

Yeh said the bureau would continue to fulfill its duties based on WTO and OIE principles during that time.

Yeh said that China's lack of transparency in its quarantine process has in fact been a barrier in local business and trade exchanges with China.

To help tackle such problems, Yeh said, the bureau has maintained close connections with its counterparts from the US, Australia, New Zealand and many other countries.