A boycott by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday threw a wrench in the legislature’s plan to allow a number of proposed amendments to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生法) to skip a preliminary review.
Accusing the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus of violating a cross-party consensus last Friday on banning “risky” beef products from the US, including bovine intestines, brains and eyes, DPP legislators occupied the speaker’s podium yesterday morning to block the legislature from proceeding with its plenary agenda.
DPP lawmakers held up placards that read “[The government] should not force people to eat US beef no matter how brutal [the government] is” and “Launch a renegotiation [with the US].”
KMT caucus whip Lin Yi-shih (林益世) yesterday shrugged off the DPP’s criticism, saying the caucus had not yet decided which proposed amendment to support. Lin lashed out at the DPP for paralyzing the plenary session, calling the move “absurd.”
The Legislative Yuan’s Procedure Committee on Tuesday scheduled a number of proposed amendments to the Act Governing Food Sanitation to be put on the plenary agenda for yesterday and next Tuesday.
Among the proposals was a version proposed by the KMT caucus on Tuesday to amend Article 14 of the Act, authorizing the government to “draw up measures to inspect beef products from areas where the risk of mad cow disease has been under control.”
In contrast, the DPP’s proposed amendment and another proposal by KMT Legislator Daniel Hwang (黃義交) sought to ban bovine skulls, brains, eyes and ground beef from nations or areas where cases of the disease have been documented.
Taiwan lifted a ban on US bone-in beef, as well as offal and ground beef from cattle younger than 30 months, on Nov. 2. The opening to beef offal and ground beef, however, has triggered public concerns that the products could be hazardous to human health.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Wednesday said he welcomed the legislature’s decision to amend the food sanitation act to impose stricter inspections and ensure public health, but he also warned that the revision should not violate the beef protocol with the US.
In related news, the Department of Health (DOH) yesterday introduced a new team that would be responsible for screening imported US beef offal and ground beef.
DOH Minister Yaung Chih-liang (楊志良) said the team would conduct checks on imported beef products upon their arrival in the country to ensure they are 100 percent safe for local consumers.
He said that once US beef offal and ground beef are shipped to Taiwan, team inspectors will require importers to prove the meat is from cattle less than 30 months of age. They will further ask the importers to defrost and open every case for safety inspection, Yaung said.
The inspectors will also visit shopping malls around the country to check whether they have opened US beef zones at the malls and whether beef products sold at the malls are all marked with their country of origin, he said.
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