The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed it sent officials to check on the safety of Canadian beef amid reports that a ban on Canadian beef products is to be lifted next month.
Taiwan banned imports of Canadian beef products in February last year following the confirmation of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) — better known as mad cow disease — in a cow in Alberta.
Food Safety Division head Pan Chih-kuan (潘志寬) on Friday said that Canada, hoping to get the ban lifted, last year asked that risk assessment be conducted.
The FDA sent officials to Canada in November last year to check on its beef, reporting no problems, Pan said, adding that the results of the visit were submitted to the Executive Yuan.
Although the government’s assessment gave Canadian beef a clean bill of health, lifting the ban would still require more inter-agency communication, with the Executive Yuan having the final say, Pan said.
An Executive Yuan official said that the precondition for re-opening Taiwan’s market to Canadian beef will be the safety of the people.
The official, who refused to be named, said many other countries, including China and South Korea, have opened their markets to imports of Canadian beef.
“Government agencies are now handling the matter in line with standard operating procedures,” said the official, who denied that there would be a decision next month as has been reported.
He also confirmed that in April, when then-premier Simon Chang (張善政) met then-premier-designate Lin Chuan (林全) on issues of government transition, Chang discussed handling the Canadian matter.
Because the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) no longer had a majority in the legislature, Chang’s bid for communication on the issue among lawmakers went nowhere, the official said.
He said that when Chang met with Lin, Chang said he was willing to reopen the doors to Canadian beef and asked Lin to mention the idea to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Chang later learned that the DPP would not block the initiative, but the Ministry of Health and Welfare issued a brief on the issue that was so vague that the Ministry of Economic Affairs could not use it as a basis for policy, the official said.
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