The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) yesterday announced that a visit to Taipei by US Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez had been postponed, amid an ongoing controversy over the import of US beef containing ractopamine.
Taiwan was initially one of the stops on Sanchez’s one-week tour of Asia to promote US exports and strengthen economic ties across the Asia-Pacific region.
“Unforeseen circumstances have made it necessary to postpone the planned March 4-6 visit,” the AIT said in a press release.
“We are currently considering options for a future visit by the Under Secretary. The United States looks forward to continued cooperation on economic and trade relations with Taiwan, our 10th largest trading partner,” it said.
Sanchez was in Tokyo yesterday on a planned three-day visit and he is scheduled to conclude his trip in Asia in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Wednesday next week.
The AIT did not say whether Sanchez was flying back to the US or traveling to other countries.
AIT spokesperson Sheila Paskman did not elaborate on “unforeseen circumstances” when contacted for clarification.
“[Sanchez’s] office contacted us and said that he has something unusual come up and he has to postpone the trip, and they are looking at other dates,” Paskman said.
The news of Sanchez’s visit was made public on Wednesday last week.
Soon after that, the Republic of China Swine Association, a nationwide association of pig farmers, announced that hog raisers would stage protests during Sanchez’s visit to voice their opposition to any move to lift the ban on imports of US beef containing ractopamine.
By law, applications for public protests must be submitted at least seven days before the event. As such, the association had rescheduled the date of its protest to Thursday next week.
“Although [Sanchez] canceled the trip, the protest will be held as scheduled. We have to show the US that we oppose the use of ractopamine,” association director-general Yang Guan-chang (楊冠章) said by telephone.
The AIT did not address any possible connection between the canceled visit and the ongoing controversy over ractopamine.
The AIT yesterday also released a communique on ractopamine — the second in two weeks — to “provide more facts about US beef and ractopamine.”
“There have been a lot of kind of crazy articles going around. We do feel strongly that people need to do some research and find out what the real science is about the beef. We are not trying to sell anything to Taiwan we do not eat ourselves,” Paskman said when asked about the statements.
“There is no health issue. I am absolutely confident that there is no health risk for US beef. I just hope that [people in Taiwan] will think about the serious science and not get carried away by political concerns,” she said.
In the statement, the AIT said that “a person would need to eat more than 270 kilograms of beef or more than nine kilograms of beef liver every day to reach that maximum safe level.”
“Over the past ten years, millions of people in more than 100 countries around the world have consumed billions of kilograms of US beef with no reports of any illness or other effect linked to ractopamine. This is strong evidence that US beef and ractopamine are safe,” it said.
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