The government should immediately announce a halt to US beef imports, the KMT caucus said yesterday following identification of a fifth case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in the US.
The lawmakers said the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration’s decision to continue importing beef from the US was negligent and used public health as a “diplomatic bargaining chip.”
The DPP administration in April ordered that eggs that might have been contaminated by dioxins be pulled from shelves for inspection, but instead of putting a halt to imports of US beef, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it is to proceed as usual, KMT caucus vice secretary-general Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) told a news conference at the legislature.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
The FDA adopts strict measures when dealing with domestic food scares, but it cannot determine the severity of the outbreak until it sends officials to the affected areas in the US next week, she said.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration fails to apply the same standards when faced with food safety issues involving the US or Japan, Lee said, referring to reports that the government is considering lifting its ban on food products from some Japanese prefectures that was imposed following the Fukushima disaster.
Lee urged the Tsai administration to deliver on its food safety policy, the part of the party’s platform that is under the most scrutiny.
KMT Legislator Chen Yi-min (陳宜民) said that the government’s standard procedure requires that beef imports from BSE-hit regions be suspended before the FDA sends officials to the affected areas.
He said FDA Director-General Wu Shou-mei (吳秀梅) violated the procedure by allowing imports of US beef to continue after citing a World Health Assembly report that says the risk of the outbreak is yet to be determined.
KMT vice secretary-general Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the FDA had caved in to pressure and applied double standards.
The Tsai administration should heed standard procedures by having the Council of Agriculture ban US beef imports while the FDA sends personnel to the US to demand that US authorities present documents related to the outbreak, he said.
The FDA should then consult experts by calling a food safety committee meeting and only lift the ban after ensuring that the beef is safe for consumption, he said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai