Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday paralyzed the legislature’s plenary session to demand new negotiations with the US over the government’s agreement to relax US beef import regulations.
The Legislative Yuan had scheduled 40 bills for the plenary session for yesterday and Tuesday, including a vote on the Executive Yuan’s nominees for the Central Election Commission.
DPP lawmakers occupied the speaker’s podium after the legislature’s state affairs forum ended early yesterday morning, stacking the podium with posters that read “Rescind the agreement and renegotiate [imports]” and “Immediately amend laws to ban cow’s internal organs and ground beef from mad-cow disease areas.”
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
The DPP’s boycott made it impossible for the legislature to proceed with the agenda.
DPP caucus deputy secretary-general Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) told the press that the DPP needed “to do something” in response to the US beef controversy because the public had reacted “very negatively to the government’s relaxation” of US beef imports.
DPP Policy Research Committee head Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) threatened to boycott the review of the central government’s fiscal budget request for next year as well, should the government refuse to renegotiate the matter with Washington.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Thursday rejected the possibility of renegotiation while arguing that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration had been more cautious than the former DPP administration in relaxing restrictions on US beef products.
Ma said launching a renegotiation of the pact would seriously undermine Taiwan’s credibility.
Under the terms of the protocol, US bone-in beef, ground beef, cow intestines, brains, spinal cords and processed beef from cattle younger than 30 months that have not been contaminated with “specific risk materials” (SRM) will be allowed into Taiwan starting on Nov. 10.
SRMs are defined in the protocol as the brain, skull, eyes, trigeminal ganglia, spinal cord, vertebral column and dorsal root ganglia of cattle 30 months of age and older, or the tonsils and the distal ileum of the small intestine from all cattle.
At present, the government only allows imports of US boneless beef from cattle younger than 30 months that contain no SRMs. DPP caucus whip Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) yesterday said the DPP caucus might file an application for a constitutional interpretation on whether the beef agreement should clear the legislative floor before it takes effect.
Wang said the pact should be subject to legislative review if it were considered a treaty between Taiwan and the US, in accordance with constitutional interpretation No. 329 handed down by the Council of Grand Justices.
KMT caucus secretary-general Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟), however, said the pact should be designated as an international protocol, or administrative order, which does not need to be submitted to the legislature for review. Lu suggested the Executive Yuan still refer to the agreement to the legislature for “reference.”
In accordance with the Act Governing Legislators’ Exercise of Power (立法院職權行使法), if lawmakers have doubts about the content of the pact, the legislature can then decide whether to subject the pact to a review, Lu said.
He added that the legislature might rule after the review to tell the government to “correct” the content or to “annul” the pact.
At a separate setting yesterday, Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said he “respected” the DPP caucus’ plan to file a constitutional interpretation, but said the DPP had failed in its intention to file a petition for a constitutional interpretation in the past because of a lack of votes or support from other parties to sustain its motions.
The Constitution requires support from one-fourth of the 113-seat legislature to file a request. The DPP holds 28 seats, the KMT holds 76 and the Non-Partisan Solidarity Union holds five. The DPP is one seat short of the threshold.
Meanwhile, the DPP yesterday also attacked Department of Health Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) for saying that those whose health was affected by US beef would be entitled to seek national compensation.
The government has no business making promises that it could not keep just to quell public angst over US beef, DPP spokesman Tsai Chih-chang (蔡其昌) said.
“Waiting to suspend imports until a case of BSE is detected in Taiwan would be too late,” Tsai said, adding that the incubation period for BSE could be up to 10 years.
“Given the fact that the incubation period could be a decade, how can the minister make such a promise when who knows where he will be in 10 years,” Tsai said. “Moreover, how would the government determine when and where the beef was consumed?”
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHIH HSIU-CHUAN AND JENNY W. HSU
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