Two women returning from visits to China were yesterday each fined NT$200,000 (US$6,479) after being caught with pork products, customs officers said.
The first was a 50-year-old Chinese woman who was caught with 15 packs of pork jerky weighing a total of 200g in her luggage after she arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport from Fuzhou.
She became the first person to be fined NT$200,000 for smuggling meat products into Taiwan after the Council of Agriculture on Monday announced that fines had been raised to between NT$50,000 and NT$200,000 for first-time offenders and between NT$500,000 and NT$1 million for repeat offenders to prevent African swine fever from spreading to the nation.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The woman, who is married to a Taiwanese man, spent about 20 yuan (US$2.90) to purchase the 15 packs of pork jerky in China while visiting relatives, the officers said.
She did not declare the pork jerky and tried to pass through the expedited clearance lane before she was caught, they added.
Despite announcements on the airplane and signs at the airport, the officers cited the woman as saying that she was unaware of the new regulations and was astonished to learn that pork jerky was banned from entering Taiwan.
The second offender, also a Chinese woman married to a Taiwanese man, was caught carrying 580g of sausages, which she also did not declare at customs.
The increased fines apply to people importing meat into Taiwan from areas that have been affected by African swine fever over the past three years, including China, Hong Kong, Macau, Russia and some European countries.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday urged China to not conceal the facts about the spread of the disease there and called for timely information about the outbreak to be provided.
Taiwan cannot afford to be kept in the dark about the African swine fever outbreak, she said, adding that the Chinese government must provide Taiwan with real-time information about the spread of the disease.
The council yesterday launched a center to better coordinate pre-emptive measures against an outbreak of the disease in Taiwan.
Pandemics “should be treated as a combat situation” and there should be no gaps in the prevention network, Premier William Lai (賴清德) said.
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