The Taiwan Swine Association expressed strong opposition to imports of US pork containing traces of the leanness-enhancing agent ractopamine, saying that it would not change its position unless scientific evidence proves that such meat poses no health risk.
“We will stand against [such imports] to the end,” association secretary-general Chang Sheng-chin (張生金) said.
The Agricultural Technology Research Institute has been studying the impact of the use of leanness-enhancing drugs on pigs, while the Ministry of Health and Welfare has been running a health safety assessment on consumption of pork containing ractopamine, Chang said.
At the moment, all members of his association insist that the government must uphold the ban on imports of US pork containing traces of ractopamine, Chang said.
The industry renewed its strong opposition to US pork imports as Taiwan and US officials were engaging in a trade dialogue in Taipei.
The US International Trade Commission in a trade report published on Tuesday said that at a meeting between Taiwan and the US under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement platform last year, the two sides agreed that more progress was needed on a broad range of agricultural trade issues.
“The United States was mostly concerned about the degree to which biotechnology plays a role in Taiwan’s agricultural trade policies, and expressed strong interest that Taiwan remove bans on US pork and certain beef products produced using ractopamine,” the report said.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
DEFENSE: The US should cancel the US visas or green cards of relatives of KMT and TPP lawmakers who have been blocking the budget, Grant Newsham said A retired US Marine Corps officer has suggested canceling the US green cards and visas of relatives of opposition Taiwanese lawmakers who have been stalling the review of a proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget. The Executive Yuan has proposed the budget for major weapons purchases over eight years, from this year to 2033. However, opposition lawmakers have refused to review the proposal, demanding that President William Lai (賴清德) first appear before the Legislative Yuan to answer questions about the proposed budget. On Thursday last week, 37 bipartisan US lawmakers sent a letter to Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the heads
A New York-based NGO has launched a global initiative to rename the nation’s overseas missions, most of which operate under the name "Taipei," to "Taiwan Representative Office (TRO)," according to a news release. Ming Chiang (江明信), CEO of Hello Taiwan, announced the campaign at a news conference in Berlin on Monday, coinciding with the World Forum held from Monday through Wednesday, the institution stated in the release. Speaking at the event, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said she believed this renaming campaign would enable the international community to see Taiwan
Two siblings in their 70s were injured yesterday when they opened a parcel and it exploded, police in Yilan said, adding the brother and sister were both in stable condition. The two siblings, surnamed Hung (洪), had received the parcel two days earlier but did not open it until yesterday, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday in Taiwan, police said. Chen Chin-cheng (陳金城), head of the Yilan County Government Police Bureau, said the package bore no postmark or names and was labeled only with the siblings’ address. Citing the findings of a
RSS