The US is looking into the extension of a Taiwanese ban on certain US beef products, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director William Stanton said yesterday.
In January, the legislature passed an amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) that imposed a ban on ground beef, internal organs and other items, counteracting the beef protocol signed between Taiwan and the US on Oct. 22 last year.
On Wednesday, the government held back on approval of imports of cow tongues, tails and other items, which are not defined as internal organs and thus do not fall under the ban as stipulated in the act, after consumer concerns that these parts may expose them to risk of contracting bovine spongiform encephalopathy, also known as mad cow disease.
Asked by reporters whether the US considered the ban inconsistent with the protocol and whether the US would demand a review of the protocol, as each side is entitled to after the deal had been put into force for 180 days yesterday, Stanton avoided answering the question.
“[Whether to review the protocol] would be a decision Washington will make ... I know they continue to review the issue,” he said.
“I don’t think there has been an official announcement other than that Washington, the Department of Agriculture and the US Trade Representative Office have expressed deep disappointment at the decision,” Stanton said.
However, Stanton said that the Taiwanese government’s reversal of policy to hold off on imports of US cow tongues was understandable “given the media controversy.”
“I think people understand why the [reversal] was made,” he said.
Stanton stopped short of elaborating, saying that he did not want to say anything that would upset people, adding that “US beef and beef products are safe.”
“My hope is that eventually the issue will calm down,” said Stanton, calling on Taiwanese to focus on the fact that US beef and beef products are safe to consume, as proven by the scientific studies conducted either by Taiwan’s administration or by the World Organization for Animal Health.
Stanton said the US had stringent standards for animal safety and was concerned about the health, not only of US citizens, but of those abroad to whom the US sells its products.
“It’s not in our own interest to sell products that will make anyone ill, and certainly not our friends in Taiwan,” he said.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS