No declarations of US beef imports were reported at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport or other major ports around the nation as of noon yesterday, when a new regulation on the examination of beef imports took effect.
Under the new measure, all shipments of beef from the US and some other countries will be checked for residues of ractopamine and other leanness-enhancing livestock feed additives.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and customs officials stood by at the country’s main gateway to carry out such checks, but by noon there were no declarations of beef imports from the US.
Photo: CNA
“There have been declarations of beef imports from Australia over the past two days, but importers of US beef are taking a wait-and-see attitude,” an FDA official at the airport said.
The situation was the same at the Port of Kaohsiung, a major port of entry for frozen beef imports, which are usually from the US, Australia or New Zealand.
In the first two months of this year, imported frozen beef at the port came from the US, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Panama, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, the Kaohsiung Customs Office said.
The US was the biggest exporter, accounting for 4,400 tonnes of frozen beef valued at NT$770 million (US$26.09 million), the office said.
In Taipei, a Department of Health (DOH) official said importers at this time would rather put their US beef into cold storage at container yards or even ship them to a third location rather than file an import declaration.
“The importers won’t risk their money,” said Pan Chih-kuan (潘志寬), director of the FDA’s Northern Center for Regional Administration, adding that importers would not be allowed to return products found to contain traces of leanness-enhancing feed additives to the exporting country.
The Port of Keelung reported no US beef imports, but said that over the past week, imports of Australian beef increased by between 20 and 30 percent.
The DOH introduced the new customs regulation amid public concerns over the use of feed additives such as ractopamine in livestock rearing.
The customs inspections will be carried out on 50 beef products from the US, Canada, Panama, Nicaragua and Australia — countries that have been found in the past to violate Taiwan’s zero-tolerance policy on residues of such drugs.
Products imported from all other countries will remain subject to the regular 5 percent examination of shipments.
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