Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) yesterday urged the Control Yuan to launch an investigation into high-ranking government officials who signed a protocol relaxing restrictions on US beef imports.
Lin told reporters in front of the Control Yuan that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration had violated the Constitution by failing to refer the protocol to the Legislative Yuan for review.
“Article 63 of the Constitution stipulates that any agreements the nation signs with other countries should be submitted to the legislature for review,” Lin said.
“Since the protocol is an international agreement, it should be sent to the legislature for review, too,” he said.
Whether or not the protocol, which allows the import of ground beef and bovine intestines from cows under 30 months of age to enter the local market, should clear the legislative floor has been a subject of intense debate.
The Executive Yuan on Oct. 31 agreed to refer the protocol to the Legislative Yuan after reaching a consensus with the KMT caucus while the caucus said it would not rule out sending the document for committee review.
The government has said that the protocol is an administrative accord that would normally come into effect after being approved by the Executive Yuan.
Under the Act Governing Legislators’ Exercise of Power (立法院職權行使法), any administrative order enacted by government agencies is then delivered to the legislature and put up for discussion in a legislative committee meeting.
If more than 15 legislators attending the meeting agree, the administrative order is then handed over to related legislative committees for review, the caucus said.
Lin said all of the officials involved in the signing of the protocol should be subject to the Control Yuan’s probe.
If the Control Yuan fails to initiate an investigation, Lin said, the TSU will stage more protests and may take the case to court. He did not elaborate.
Control Yuan member Lee Ful-dien (李復甸) promised to deal with the case after investigating the matter further.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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