While Taiwan is expected to re-open its doors to imports of US bone-in beef, shredded beef, some beef offal and other beef products soon, Vice Premier Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday that consumers’ health would be safeguarded.
“No matter whether it is in my capacity as vice premier or as chairman of the Consumer Protection Commission, I will not sacrifice consumers’ rights and benefits,” Chu said in the legislature in response to questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hou Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳).
Hou had expressed concern about US beef imports after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) told a Heritage Foundation delegation on Tuesday that Taipei and Washington had come close to a consensus on the beef issue. Ma said he hoped the problem would be resolved in “the foreseeable future.”
The government imposed restrictions on beef products from the US after the latter reported its first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) — also called mad cow disease — in 2003, prompting Taiwan, Japan and South Korea to reject all its beef products.
Taiwan partially lifted the ban in April 2005 to allow imports of de-boned beef from cattle under 30 months old, but it reimposed the ban two months later when a second BSE case was discovered in the US.
Taiwan again agreed to allow US beef imports in 2006, but only boneless beef from cattle under 30 months old, produced by certified slaughterhouses and without any high-risk parts such as brains, skulls, eyes, spinal nerve roots, tonsils and small intestines.
For the past year, the US has been trying to persuade Taiwan to open its doors more widely to its beef products.
Chu said the government would not relax its restrictions on US beef imports beyond what South Korea has done because Seoul has the strictest safety standards on US beef among importers.
However, “if the restrictions are too tight, they might harm the bilateral economic and trade relations and the trust,” he said.
The government will demand that retailers sell US beef in specially marked sections to make it easier for consumers to know what they are buying, he said.
Department of Health Minister of Health Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) said the restrictions would be relaxed soon. But he said imports will be restricted to bone-in and boneless beef without high-risk parts and from cattle aged under 30 months.
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