Several legislators yesterday urged the Council of Agriculture (COA) and the Department of Health to step up inspections on the local market to crack down on mushrooms smuggled from China.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Hsu Chung-hsiung (徐中雄) and Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏) and Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chang Hua-kuan (張花冠) issued the request at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee called to discuss measures to curb smuggling and help local mushroom growers.
Mushroom imports from China are banned in Taiwan, but smuggling has become rampant in recent years because of the steep difference in prices between mushrooms grown in China and those grown in Taiwan.
According to Coast Guard Administration figures, 20,103kg of smuggled Chinese mushrooms were seized in 2005, a figure that rose to 45,358 kg in 2006. A total of 16,556kg have been seized to date this year, but the figures are believed to represent only a fraction of the total amount that end up on the local market.
Hsu claimed at the meeting that smuggled Chinese mushrooms have seriously harmed the interests of domestic growers.
With Chinese mushrooms costing NT$200 to NT$300 per kilogram, compared with NT$600 to NT$800 for locally grown mushrooms, Hsu said, Taiwanese growers suffered a 60 percent drop in sales during the recent Dragon Boat Festival holiday because of the availability of smuggled Chinese mushrooms.
Hsu said Chinese mushrooms contain excessive levels of pesticide residue, which was why he and his colleagues urged the government to crack down on smuggling to ensure consumer safety as well as the livelihood of local growers.
In response, COA Deputy Minister Huang You-tsai (黃有才) said the main responsibility for preventing smuggling lay with customs officials and the coast guard.
He said the Ministry of Justice’s Investigation Bureau, the COA, customs authorities, the coast guard and local police have formed a task force to crack down on smuggling of agricultural products.
The task force conducts regular spot inspections at local markets to check for smuggled goods, he said.
Meanwhile, Wu Ai-kuo (吳愛國), deputy head of the Finance Ministry’s Directorate General of Customs, said the US has lent Taiwan three advanced X-ray machines under its Container Security Initiative program which are now being used at points of entry in Kaohsiung.
He said the Directorate General of Customs has allocated funds for the purchase of five more X-ray machines to help prevent smuggling.
Hsu urged the task force to increase the frequency of its spot checks to more than four times a month at retail outlets, food processing plants and storage sites.
Only in this way can consumer safety and the interests of local mushroom farmers be protected, he said.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A 79-year-old woman died today after being struck by a train at a level crossing in Taoyuan, police said. The woman, identified by her surname Wang (王), crossed the tracks even though the barriers were down in Jhongli District’s (中壢) Neili (內壢) area, the Taoyuan Branch of the Railway Police Bureau said. Surveillance footage showed that the railway barriers were lowered when Wang entered the crossing, but why she ventured onto the track remains under investigation, the police said. Police said they received a report of an incident at 6:41am involving local train No. 2133 that was heading from Keelung to Chiayi City. Investigators
RSS