The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday reiterated its opposition to the easing of a ban on residue of the livestock feed additive ractopamine in meat, despite the vote by a UN-affiliated food safety organization in favor of allowing certain levels of it.
On Thursday last week the Codex Alimentarius Commission in Rome, Italy, narrowly voted in favor of maximum residue levels (MRLs) of the additive.
“The dietary habits of Taiwanese are different from those of other countries. We agree that the Codex standard could serve as a reference for the amendment in Taiwan, but we are not required to proceed with the dispute in accordance with the Codex decision,” TSU caucus whip Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) told a press conference.
“The TSU insists on zero-tolerance of ractopamine,” Hsu said.
Consumption of offal by Taiwanese would increase health concerns related to ractopamine, he added.
More discussion with academics is needed before the Legislative Yuan convenes for an extra session on July 24, he said.
Citing a press release issued by US-based National Health Federation, which stated that the voting “was forced upon the Commission by the insistence of the US, Costa Rica and Brazil,” TSU Legislator Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉) said that Taiwan should not lower its health and food safety standards to accommodate countries with lower standards.
The 69-67 voting results in the Codex meeting showed that almost half of the member countries opposed the adoption, Lin said.
The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) headquarters said on Thursday night that the party has always advocated the adoption of international standards.
However, several DPP lawmakers took the same position as the TSU, saying that stricter measures should be implemented to safeguard public health.
DPP Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said yesterday the DPP caucus planned to talk to academics, civic groups and opposition leaders before the extra legislative session about stricter measures on ractopamine, despite the international standard.
Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung. The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei. Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
RSS