The government said yesterday it would not give up restrictions it imposes on imported beef, after a warning by US lawmakers that the issue could cripple free-trade talks. Shipments of US beef were pulled from store shelves last month after they were found to contain a drug, Paylean, used to promote leanness in animals raised for meat.
“The restrictions are in place in accordance with the laws to protect public health and they are not aimed at the US. We will continue to enforce the regulations,” Department of Health spokesperson Wang Che-chao (王哲超) said.
Top US lawmakers urged -President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Thursday to roll back what they branded unscientific restrictions on US beef exports and warned the issue could cripple free-trade talks.
“The scientific evidence is clear that US beef is safe and that there is no food-safety justification for these actions,” said the chairmen and ranking members of two US congressional committees with broad sway over trade matters.
“We urge you to take prompt corrective measures to restore trade and avoid further damage to our bilateral trade relations,” they wrote in a letter made public by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, a Democrat.
The top Republican on his panel, Senator Orrin Hatch, House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp and the top Democrat on that panel, Representative Sander Levin, also signed the letter.
The lawmakers warned of “serious negative consequences” for bilateral trade, and said a solution was needed “to begin to restore the confidence necessary” to resume trade talks on hold since 2007.
Taiwan pulled shipments of US beef from store shelves last month after they were found to contain a drug, Paylean, used to promote leanness in animals raised for meat. Taiwan restricts Paylean because of possible human health risks associated with the ingredient ractopamine, but 26 countries, including the US, Canada, Australia and Brazil, have declared the product safe.
The US lawmakers said in their letter that Taiwan had effectively “recognized the safety of ractopamine” when its Department of Health wrote to the WTO in 2007 to say it planned to set what amounted to a ceiling on the amount of residue permitted in cattle and swine.
Beef exports from the US — Taiwan’s main source — “have ground to a halt” the lawmakers said, warning that “Taiwan’s scientifically unjustified policy” was also hurting sales of US pork.
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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