The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday announced that food products from five Japanese prefectures that were banned after the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster in 2011 can now be imported to Taiwan, effective yesterday.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare on Feb. 8 promulgated draft measures for “types of food, and their production or manufacturing areas in Japan where imports are suspended,” saying that “designated foods imported from Japan shall be accompanied with a certificate of radioactive examination results for import inspection,” before opening a period of public comment.
“The proposals take effect immediately,” the FDA said.
Photo: CNA
The measures prohibit the importation of certain products, instead of banning all products from specific regions; require importers of high-risk food products to submit a certificate of origin and a certificate of radiation inspection; and require that food products from the five prefectures be inspected batch by batch.
About 17,000 imported food items are inspected for radioactive contamination each year, and an estimated 8,000 additional items would need to be inspected after the ban is lifted, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said.
Taiwan has the capacity to conduct radioactive contamination inspections on up to 69,000 imported food items per year, so consumers need not worry, Chen said.
Food labels would indicate products imported from the five prefectures and inspection certificates would be included for certain food products, he said.
Asked whether 10 days were too short for public comment, Chen said that a referendum was held on the issue in 2018 and millions of people cast their votes, so it is not a new issue.
An adequate number of public comments was collected, he added.
The online Public Policy Participation Network Platform gathered 36 public comments: 17 in support of the policy, four against, and 15 that offered suggestions or inquired about the policy, he said.
The policy is based on scientific evidence and international food safety standards, Chen said, adding that public health would be safeguarded.
Asked when the first batch of food products from the five prefectures might arrive, Chen said he did not know any details, but had heard that some companies planned to import the products.
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
A senior US military official yesterday warned his Chinese counterpart against Beijing’s “dangerous” moves in the South China Sea during the first talks of their kind between the commanders. Washington and Beijing remain at odds on issues from trade to the status of Taiwan and China’s increasingly assertive approach in disputed maritime regions, but they have sought to re-establish regular military-to-military talks in a bid to prevent flashpoint disputes from spinning out of control. Samuel Paparo, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, and Wu Yanan (吳亞男), head of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Southern Theater Command, talked via videoconference. Paparo “underscored the importance
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
RSS