The government would only consider banning the import of US beef if the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) raised its risk status in the wake of a new case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE, commonly known as mad cow disease) in the US, the Department of Health said yesterday.
Department of Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta (邱文達) made the announcement during a briefing at the legislature’s Health, Environment and Social Welfare Committee on amendments to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生管理法) to stipulate a safe level for the feed additive ractopamine in food, as well as related regulations.
However, legislators focused on a report from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Tuesday that confirmed a case of mad cow disease, in a dairy cow in California.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The department said on Wednesday night that Taiwan had no plan to ban US beef imports for the time being.
Asked if there had been any change in the department’s decision, Chiu said it was trying to verify details of the case with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).
“According to the Protocol of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE)-Related Measures for the Importation of Beef and Beef Products for Human Consumption from the Territory of the Authorities Represented by the AIT, we need to first verify and then see if the OIE has made any announcement [about a risk status revision],” Chiu said. “The protocol says [the US] will inform us and we are still waiting for them to do so.”
Under the protocol, following a case of BSE, the USDA must immediately conduct a thorough epidemiological investigation and inform the department and the Council of Agriculture of the results via the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office
The department would suspend imports of beef and beef products if the recent cases resulted in the OIE designating an adverse change in the classification of BSE status.
The animal in question was a dairy cow, Chiu said, adding that as a result it did not enter the meat supply chain. After an initial evaluation, the department had therefore determined that this was an isolated case and decided to continue to allow US beef imports.
The decision was opposed by several lawmakers on the committee, who asked the government announce an immediate suspension of US beef imports.
“The mad cow disease case in 2003 also involved a dairy cow,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said. “Back then, the government stopped imports of US beef for a year. You [the department] should do likewise [despite] the unequal treaties this government has signed.”
Committee Convener Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆), a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, said the government should suspend all talks on issues related to ractopamine if there were additional mad cow cases in the US and a risk upgrade by the OIE.
Tsai announced a recess for negotiations after the DPP proposed putting the amendment to a vote, but he then left the chamber and did not return, effectively putting review of the amendment on hold again.
At a press conference, the DPP caucus condemned the government for its inaction and submitted a three-point demand to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
“The caucus demands that Ma remove all domestic US beef products from the shelves, freeze all US beef imports being processed by customs and halt all US beef imports,” DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said.
The Ma administration had responded too slowly to the latest development, he said, with no new measures announced after an inter-agency meeting on Tuesday.
Citing the WTO’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Pan said Taiwan could apply its own measures to safeguard food safety, adding that the DPP administration had halted US beef imports twice — in 2003 and 2005 — when similar cases were found.
The USDA has insisted that the detection of one cow suffering from mad cow disease “in no way affects the US’ BSE status as determined by the OIE.”
However, DPP legislators Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) and Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) said a ban on the import of US beef products should be introduced immediately.
The US’ inspection rate on cattle has been relatively low, which suggests there could be more undetected cases of mad cow disease, DPP Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡) said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods