The Taiwanese government’s handling of traces of ractopamine recently detected in US beef created an atmosphere not conducive to the meeting of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), American Institute in Taiwan Chairman Raymond Burghardt said yesterday.
“The press conferences about ractopmaine, the ordering of the removal of [contaminated US] beef from supermarkets ... created a public misperception that there is a risk to public health. But in fact, the [US beef] produce is safe and consumed throughout the world,” Burghardt said in Taipei.
Last September, the US and Taiwan decided to resume talks on economic issues under the TIFA, a vice minister-level communications platform established in 1994, after a three-year hiatus owing to Taiwan’s import ban on US beef over fears of mad cow disease.
The Taiwanese side had said that resumption of the talks could take place on Friday, while the US side hasn’t formally announced a date.
“We will continue to talk to Taiwan on all the trade issues, but as far as holding a joint council of TIFA ... it didn’t look like the right week to do it,” Burghardt said.
Taiwan recently ordered the withdrawal of US beef found to contain traces of the lean--meat enhancing drug, banned in Taiwan, from the market, and said it would not revise its zero-tolerance policy because the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex) is still in the process of establishing standards for trace levels of ractopamine.
The other thing that also has “an effect on the mood” of the US to not resume the TIFA talks was that “we saw a distinctions in the way the [US] beef products were handled versus the way domestic products were handled,” Burghardt said.
When 10 pig farms in Taiwan were found using illegal additives last month, the Taiwanese government did not hold press conferences, did not mention their findings on government Web sites and did not invite the press to come along with cameras rolling when inspecting the farms, Burghardt said.
The US has been urging Taiwan to adopt the maximum residue level (MRL) standard for ractopamine in meat adopted by the US and 25 other countries.
“Taiwan in 2007 conducted its own risk assessment of ractopmaine and found that ractopamine was safe for use. Taiwan’s own Laboratory of the Department of Health made the conclusions and Taiwan notified the WTO in August 2007 that it intended to implement the MRL for rectopamine for use in beef,” Burghardt said.
Taiwan “made a smart step based on science” in 2007, but the policy was not implemented as there were demonstrations by farmers, he said.
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