The government’s decision to ease restrictions on food products imported from five Japanese prefectures should be based on a product’s certificates of origin issued by the Japanese government, former premier Simon Chang (張善政) said yesterday.
Taiwan suspended food imports from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster in March 2011. The government is mulling a two-stage reopening to Japanese food product imports.
Chang yesterday said that he had also dealt with the issue during former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
Last year, the Ma administration demanded that Tokyo provide official place of origin certificates after a scandal involving Japanese foodstuffs with counterfeit origin labels.
The former premier added that the Executive Yuan tried various channels to urge Japan to provide certifications and that it was a private Japanese association that finally responded to the request.
However, Japan exports food products to South Korea with official certificates of origin, which means that Japan treats Taiwan differently, he said.
Chang said that people are unlikely to have a problem if the ban was lifted based on scientific evidence, and the government’s plan is to continue to ban all food products from Fukushima Prefecture, while easing restrictions on the other four prefectures.
“However, the key is whether Japan would be willing to issue official certificates of origin, without which we could not be sure where the products are from,” he said.
Tokyo should not have a double standard, Chang said.
“I would oppose lifting the ban if no official certification is issued by Japan and the government insists on opening up the Taiwanese market,” he said.
Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said after the falsified labels last year, Japan has been required to provide both certifications of origin and official radiation examination certifications.
He said that new measures would be implemented for easing, which “should be no different from those implemented in South Korea.”
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