The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus yesterday called on the government not to put diplomacy before food safety, demanding a halt to the reported lifting of restrictions on food products from radiation-affected regions of Japan.
KMT legislators Lin Te-fu (林德福), Chiang Hui-chen (江惠貞) and Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) said at a news conference that they are against sacrificing people’s health for the sake of diplomacy, citing the Chinese-language United Daily, which ran a front-page article saying that food products from the Japanese prefectures, except those from Fukushima “due to the sensitivity of its name,” starting next week would have bans lifted on entry into Taiwan.
Taiwan placed the ban on food products from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Chiba and Gunma prefectures after the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident triggered by the Tohuku earthquake and tsunami.
The United Daily report said that the ban is to be partially lifted next week after several rounds of negotiations on the matter between the two nation’s governments.
Chiang said the Ministry of Health and Welfare should not unilaterally make the decision when most of the public is still wary about the safety of products from the areas.
Wu said the ministry should not cave in “just because Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s brother [Nobuo Kishi] visited Taiwan.”
Kishi and a group of delegates visited Taiwan in late April to voice concern over measures to require labeling on Japanese foodstuffs to show specific places of origin and certification showing that the products had passed radiation inspections — a measure taken in the wake of a food labeling scandal in which the production location on Japanese foodstuffs was found to be incorrect.
“Taiwan cannot be the first country to lift the ban,” Wu said, adding that China and South Korea have maintained similar measures.
Ministry of Health and Welfare Vice Minister Hsu Ming-neng (許銘能) said an end to the ban was not the announcement to be made next week.
“Japan last year asked for a re-examination of the restrictions, and we sent a few specialists to Japan in September and October to evaluate the risk [posed by food products from the areas],” said Hsu, who was invited by the caucus to the news conference. “The specialists advised that lifting the ban could be done for regions other than Fukushima and we have been cautiously evaluating [the possibility].”
“However, the decision will not be made until sufficient communication with the public and lawmakers has been done,” Hsu added.
Separately yesterday, Food and Drug Administration Deputy Director Hsueh Fu-chin (薛復琴) shrugged off the report.
She said that bilateral discussion on the matter was ongoing, but no consensus had been reached.
“This case is still being evaluated and we have yet to make any decisions or set up a timetable,” Hsueh said, adding that even if the ban was relaxed, radioactive content in Japanese foods should still fall within national requirements.
Hsueh said the import ban on Japanese foods produced in the five prefectures remained unchanged, with manufacturers of edible products from other parts of the country being required to provide an official certification on the place of origin.
In addition, aquatic products from Miyagi, Iwate, Ehime and Tokyo prefectures; tea items from Shizuoka, Tokyo, Aichi and Osaka prefectures; as well as dairy products, baby formula, candy, cookies and grain foods from Miyagi, Saitama and Tokyo prefectures are allowed to enter Taiwan only if they have a radiation report, Hsueh said.
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