If local government regulations on the maximum residue limits of ractopamine in US pork still contradict central government regulation next year, they would become invalid, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) said yesterday.
Hsueh made the remark at a meeting of legislative committees yesterday morning to review a policy allowing imports of US pork containing ractopamine from Jan. 1.
Several local governments have regulations for zero tolerance of ractopamine in pork.
Photo: CNA
Asked by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) about a document issued to local governments on the issue, Hsueh said that the Ministry of Health and Welfare had sent official documents to local governments asking them to review their regulations.
According to the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), the maximum residue limits of veterinary drugs in meat are stipulated by the central government, so if local regulations contradict the central government’s rules, local governments would be instructed to review their regulations, he said.
“As of Jan. 1, any such local regulations would become invalid, as they contradict the central government,” Hsueh said, adding that the ministry would not revoke the local regulations, but they would automatically be superseded.
If the regulations of the central and local governments contradict one another, people — especially pork vendors — would be confused about which law to follow, he said.
Local regulations with zero tolerance for ractopamine in pork would result in fines for pork vendors selling products containing ractopamine, but the vendors would file lawsuits if they followed the central government’s maximum residue limits, he said.
At the Central Epidemic Command Center’s weekly news conference yesterday afternoon, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) was asked to comment on Hsueh’s remarks.
The draft amendment to the act is being reviewed by the Legislative Yuan, so whether local regulations contradict the act remains unclear, Chen said.
In related news, the Chiayi County Council held a special meeting to review a proposed amendment to the Chiayi County Self-Governance Ordinances for Food Safety Management (嘉義縣食品安全管理自治條例), which would stipulate that in the county, beta-agonists — including ractopamine — must not be detectable in pork or products containing pork.
Nineteen of the county’s 36 councilors have signed the proposal.
A 2017 amendment to Taichung’s self-governance ordinances for food safety management prohibits pork and pork products in the city from containing beta-agonists, Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) said yesterday, adding that the municipality would not change its rules just because it received a document from the ministry.
Lu said that the city council was unlikely to propose modifications to its regulations.
New Taipei City’s self-governance ordinance for zero tolerance on ractopamine in pork is being reviewed by the city council, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said.
However, the municipality insists on a zero tolerance policy and has instructed its schools to only serve domestic pork.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS