A weedkiller at the center of a lawsuit in the US is used in Taiwan, but is barred from use outside of farms, Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine Deputy Director-General Chou Hui-chuan (鄒慧娟) said on Tuesday.
Glyphosate was used extensively in Taiwan last year, with 1,337 tonnes applied, Chou said.
A jury in California on Monday returned a verdict awarding US$2 billion in damages to a couple who alleged that Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based Roundup caused their cancer. It was the largest US jury verdict against the German chemical giant in litigation over glyphosate.
Chou said that, in the litigation against Bayer, the weedkiller was not used on farmland, but on campuses and residential areas.
Citing the Agro-pesticides Management Act (農藥管理法), Chou said that only agricultural pesticides are allowed for farm use.
All licensed agro-pesticides have undergone strict toxicology assessments, she said.
“As long as they are used in accordance with the guidelines and on the correct scale, they pose no safety concerns,” she said.
The US Environmental Protection Agency classifies glysophate as an “E”-level carcinogen, meaning that there is no evidence that its use causes cancer in humans, Chou said.
Her remarks came in the wake of a Chinese-language news report citing bureau Director-General Feng Hai-tung (馮海東) as saying that the agency would not ban the chemical from use on farmland, but urged farmers to apply it legally and to use proper protective clothing and equipment.
The bureau hopes that farmers will gradually reduce the use of glyphosate, Feng said.
While the California jury found that the producer of Roundup failed to warn of the risks of using the herbicide, Chou said there are already regulations in Taiwan that agricultural pesticides must be labeled as hazardous and carry instructions for precautionary measures.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS