Legislators yesterday again failed to deliver on a promise to come to a consensus on amending the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) to address perceived flaws in the Taiwan-US protocol that allows the entry of what some lawmakers have called “unsafe US beef products.”
Legislators initially set a deadline of Nov. 17 to amend the legislation based on the agreed conclusion reached at a cross-party negotiation meeting, however, lawmakers last Friday postponed the deadline to yesterday, but a settlement is still not in sight.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday revised its original version. The original banned imports of skull, brains, eyes, spinal cords, ground beef and intestines from “areas affected by mad cow disease or areas with a history of the infections,” while the new version banned such products from “areas affected by mad cow disease or areas with a history of the infection in the last 10 years.”
PHOTO: CNA
The Act had allowed the import of US ground beef and intestines, but if the amendment passes, such imports would be banned from entering the country because the US discovered its third mad cow disease case in 2003.
“The latest DPP version was close to the [KMT caucus’] position, but the Presidential Office still has concerns over violation of the protocol,” KMT caucus whip Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) said.
“If the Presidential Office is OK with the DPP’s version, the KMT caucus will support it. If not, we hope the Office will explain to the public its reasons,” Lu said.
The KMT’s latest proposal says that skulls, brains, eyes and spinal cords imported from areas where mad cow disease has been reported in the past 10 years should be banned from entry and ground beef and intestines without examination credentials issued by exporting countries that it has been thawed and passed batch-by-batch inspections should not be allowed entry.
The legislative plenary session, scheduled to review bills, sat idle the whole day yesterday because of the disagreements.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face
A fugitive in a suspected cosmetic surgery fraud case today returned to Taiwan from Canada, after being wanted for six years. Internet celebrity Su Chen-tuan (蘇陳端), known as Lady Nai Nai (貴婦奈奈), and her former boyfriend, plastic surgeon Paul Huang (黃博健), allegedly defrauded clients and friends of about NT$1 billion (US$30.66 million). Su was put on a wanted list in 2019 when she lived in Toronto, Canada, after failing to respond to subpoenas and arrest warrants from the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office. Su arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 5am today on an EVA Air flight accompanied by a
RSS