Lai Yi-chung (賴怡忠), a researcher at Taiwan Think Tank, said he suspected Ma was using US beef as a salve to mollify his image in Washington.
“From being slow in accepting US offers of assistance during Typhoon Morakot to Ma’s eagerness to create rapprochement with Beijing, these actions have made Washington and countries in the region question his ultimate strategy,” said Lai, who once served as deputy of the Democratic Progressive Party’s International Affairs Department. “One can speculate that relaxing the ban on US beef could expedite the arms sale or Taiwan’s inclusion in the visa-waiver program. But the root of the problem is that this shows us that Ma is losing his grip on the bottom line.”
Alexander Huang (黃介正), a professor at the Graduate Institute of the Americas at Tamkung University, said the Ma administration must release the country’s standards on US beef so that the public can compare national standards with those in Japan and South Korea.
South Korea was the latest Asian country to abolish the ban on US beef — on the condition that only boneless meat from cattle under 30 months of age would be permitted to enter the market.
“If the meat truly meets our standards and is also acceptable in other countries, then it should not be a big issue,” he said, adding that whether the move was a political gambit by either government had yet to be determined.
Luo and Shih said the DOH was ignored in the process and that the decision was made by the upper echelons of the government.
“Judging from DOH Minister Yaung Chih-liang’s [楊志良] comments, it is clear that he disagrees with the government — he even feels that Taiwan has conceded too much,” Luo said, referring to the minister’s comments during a press conference, where he said he was “unsatisfied” with the outcome and that opening Taiwan’s market to US beef offal was beyond what he had anticipated.
Yang did not sit at the negotiation table with the US. The talks were led by DOH Deputy Minister Hsiao Mei-ling (蕭美玲).
While Yang yesterday offered to resign, Luo said this would be the wrong person to step down because it would mean that the official who made the decision would remain in office.
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