The US government expressed its concerns over Taiwan’s mandatory country-of-origin labeling for US pork imports and maximum ractopamine content restrictions for some pork products in a report released on Thursday.
The US Trade Representative (USTR) on Thursday released this year’s National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, in which Taiwan’s regulations governing imports of US pork and beef products were among the issues addressed.
Taiwan began allowing imports of US pork containing ractopamine on Jan. 1 last year after it established maximum residue levels (MRLs) and put in place country-of-origin labeling measures.
Taiwan’s presentation of the labeling requirements to the public as a means to ensure the food safety of US pork products, while simultaneously implementing MRLs for ractopamine in imported pork, “inaccurately implied that there is a food safety concern with US pork products,” the USTR said in the report.
EU DISTINCTION
The report’s assessment runs counter to that of the EU, which bans the import of meat containing the feed additive and whose food safety agency in 2009 said that there was insufficient data to conclude that ractopamine is safe for human consumption.
Although the USTR report said that Taiwan’s ractopamine policy for imported pork kidneys and other edible parts was more restrictive than the MRLs established by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, the commission has been criticized for pursuing the interests of global agribusiness and not acting as an impartial standards-setting agency.
Despite this, the report raised concerns that Taiwan’s method of testing for ractopamine residue is not aligned with methods of analysis for ractopamine recommended by the commission and could provide inaccurate results.
Meanwhile, the USTR urged Taiwan to lift its ban on imports of US ground beef and some internal organs, and open its market fully to US beef products based on World Organization for Animal Health guidelines, the US’ negligible risk status for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, and the 2009 beef protocol signed by Taiwan and the US.
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents would supplant smartphones as the center of people’s digital lives, fundamentally reshaping personal devices and driving a major computing upgrade cycle, Qualcomm Inc CEO Cristiano Amon said yesterday. In his keynote speech for this year’s Computex trade show in Taipei, Amon said that the rise of "agentic AI" — AI systems capable of reasoning, planning and carrying out tasks autonomously — would transform how people interact with technology across phones, PCs, vehicles and wearable devices. Describing the technology as the next major evolution in computing, Amon said that "2026 is the year of agents.” For decades, smartphones have sat
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said it would work with US chipmaker Intel Corp to jointly develop and deploy next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and intelligent computing platforms in a move to capture booming demand for AI computing systems. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), said in a statement that the partnership would combine its global manufacturing scale, system integration expertise and AI data center deployment capabilities with Intel’s strengths in processor architecture, silicon technologies and software ecosystem. The companies said they plan to work on equipment used in AI data centers, including server racks powered by
RSS