Government officials, academics and representatives from civic groups debated at a public hearing yesterday whether a proposed referendum on lifting the ban on certain US beef products should be approved.
The proposal asks voters if they agree with the Department of Health (DOH) decision to allow imports of beef organs, ground beef and bone-in beef from the US, and whether the government should renegotiate the beef agreement with the US.
Officials from the DOH, the Council of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economic Affairs have repeatedly stressed the safety of US beef and said that a referendum was unnecessary. However, Consumer Foundation chairman Hsieh Tien-jen (謝天仁) questioned on whether the government is capable of or determined enough to protect the health of consumers.
“National Security Council secretary-general Su Chi [蘇起] said that the Taiwan-US beef agreement has a higher legal status than domestic laws, so we’re not sure whether the agreement has a higher status than the amended law,” Hsieh said. “So why not leave the issue to be decided by the people in a referendum?”
DOH Bureau of Food Safety director Lin Hsueh-jung (林雪蓉) said the decision to lift the ban was based on scientific facts so should not be voted on in a referendum.
“Besides, the referendum proposal asks whether the decision should be voided and whether the government should renegotiate,” Lin said. “It violates the Referendum Act [公民投票法], which stipulates that only one question can be asked in one referendum.”
Former deputy minister of the interior Lin Mei-chu (林美珠), meanwhile, urged government representatives to stop talking about the safety of US beef.
“It’s not our job to decide whether US beef is safe, and it has nothing to do with whether the referendum should be voted on,” Lin said. “Our job is to determine if the proposal meets all the requirements to be a valid referendum, and, if so, it should make it to the polling stations.”
Lin said that waiving the lifting of the ban and renegotiation are two sides of the same issue, “so the issue of whether the referendum asks two questions does not exist.”
After the public hearing, the Cabinet’s Referendum Review Committee said it would make the final decision on whether the referendum proposal is valid next week at the earliest.
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