US pork exports grew by 45 percent between 2010 and last year, while those of US beef doubled. Average annual growth of US pork and beef exports during this period has been 4 percent and 8 percent respectively.
US pork has been available in Taiwan for more than 20 years, but because Taiwanese prefer domestically produced pork — freshly slaughtered without being refrigerated or frozen — home-grown pork has a 90.6 percent share of the market.
Out of 2.67 million tonnes of pork exported by the US last year, only a little more than 11,000 tonnes were shipped to Taiwan — a mere 1.2 percent of its pork market.
The Central News Agency reported that Taiwan Swine Association secretary-general Chang Sheng-chin (張生金) said: “US pork free of leanness-enhancing feed additives, which is allowed to be imported, only costs NT$35 to NT$40 per kilogram, which is close to half the NT$60 to NT$62 production cost of domestic pork.”
Evidently, the low cost of US pork does not give it an overwhelming advantage on the Taiwanese market, because it has only gained a small foothold after all these years.
From a marketing point of view, product differentiation — the preference for the flavor of Taiwanese pork and for fresh pork over frozen pork — has prevented US pork’s cost advantage from having an effect.
As a result, when Chang added that “if we were to import pork that contains leanness-enhancing agents, the price would be even lower, so it might have a greater impact,” what he said does not comply with marketing logic.
The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) rationale for opposing pork, but not beef, with traces of ractopamine, is that few Taiwanese eat beef, while most eat pork.
This rationale is even less capable of standing up to scrutiny.
Beef produced in Taiwan only accounts for 5.3 percent of the local beef market, while US beef has the lion’s share at 46.6 percent.
Last year, Taiwan imported more than 64,000 tonnes of US beef — almost three times as much as in 2012, which shows that Taiwanese favor US beef.
A calculation based on a local population of 23 million people shows that each person consumed an average of 3kg of US beef last year, compared with 500g of US pork — six times as much.
Considering that many people do not eat beef, but do eat pork, the real number is probably several times higher.
In other words, if one assumes that eating too much beef with traces of ractopamine has an adverse health effect, the main point of concern should be how much ractopamine these beef-lovers have accumulated in their bodies.
No wonder that people posted comments on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board such as: “They found nothing worrying about ractopamine after eating tens of thousands of tonnes of US beef, but eight years later, when they suddenly want to oppose the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP], they tell me to worry.”
Another user asked: “What sense does it make to say that you cannot eat pork with leanness enhancers, but when it is in beef, that is OK?”
With respect to trade, the main thing that the US cares about is keeping trade fair — fair for the US, that is.
At a time when Taiwan-US relations are warmer than ever and Taiwan is eager to sign a trade agreement, US pork has a tiny share of the local market and, by implication, a tiny impact on local pig farmers.
The ruling DPP has a high rate of support, while the opposition KMT opened the door to the importation of US beef with traces of ractopamine when it was in power.
Given these factors, the DPP and the KMT should not object to letting pork follow where beef went before, although they seem to have run into a brick wall this time.
It must be difficult for the US to understand why Taiwanese legislators are so eager to crush US pork imports. Surely they find Taiwanese logic very strange.
Wu Hai-ruei is a manager of a listed company.
Translated by Julian Clegg
Donald Trump’s return to the White House has offered Taiwan a paradoxical mix of reassurance and risk. Trump’s visceral hostility toward China could reinforce deterrence in the Taiwan Strait. Yet his disdain for alliances and penchant for transactional bargaining threaten to erode what Taiwan needs most: a reliable US commitment. Taiwan’s security depends less on US power than on US reliability, but Trump is undermining the latter. Deterrence without credibility is a hollow shield. Trump’s China policy in his second term has oscillated wildly between confrontation and conciliation. One day, he threatens Beijing with “massive” tariffs and calls China America’s “greatest geopolitical
US President Donald Trump’s seemingly throwaway “Taiwan is Taiwan” statement has been appearing in headlines all over the media. Although it appears to have been made in passing, the comment nevertheless reveals something about Trump’s views and his understanding of Taiwan’s situation. In line with the Taiwan Relations Act, the US and Taiwan enjoy unofficial, but close economic, cultural and national defense ties. They lack official diplomatic relations, but maintain a partnership based on shared democratic values and strategic alignment. Excluding China, Taiwan maintains a level of diplomatic relations, official or otherwise, with many nations worldwide. It can be said that
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) made the astonishing assertion during an interview with Germany’s Deutsche Welle, published on Friday last week, that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not a dictator. She also essentially absolved Putin of blame for initiating the war in Ukraine. Commentators have since listed the reasons that Cheng’s assertion was not only absurd, but bordered on dangerous. Her claim is certainly absurd to the extent that there is no need to discuss the substance of it: It would be far more useful to assess what drove her to make the point and stick so
The central bank has launched a redesign of the New Taiwan dollar banknotes, prompting questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators — “Are we not promoting digital payments? Why spend NT$5 billion on a redesign?” Many assume that cash will disappear in the digital age, but they forget that it represents the ultimate trust in the system. Banknotes do not become obsolete, they do not crash, they cannot be frozen and they leave no record of transactions. They remain the cleanest means of exchange in a free society. In a fully digitized world, every purchase, donation and action leaves behind data.
RSS