The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) will lead a seven-member delegation of experts to Beijing this morning to discuss the tainted milk powder scandal with the health department and experts, the foundation said yesterday.
The experts include Chang Shu-ti (張樹棣), vice secretary-general of the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF); Shih Yaw-tang (石曜堂), chairman of the Supervisory Committee of National Health Insurance; Chen Shu-kong (陳樹功）director of the Bureau of Food Sanitation; Hsiao Mei-ling (蕭美玲), director-general of the DOH’s Bureau of Health Promotion; Liao Chun-heng (廖俊亨), director-general of the Committee of Appeal at the health department; Hsueh Fu-chin (薛復琴), a section chief at the DOH’s Bureau of Food Safety; and Wu Zih-rong (吳姿蓉), a section chief at Bureau of Standards, Metrology & Inspection.
The delegation will stay in Beijing for three days to discuss the issue with Chinese officials.
SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) told a press conference yesterday that he raised the concern of China’s tainted milk powder on Wednesday during a phone conversation with Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), the chairman of China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS).
SEF Secretary-General Kao Kong-lian (高孔廉) received a phone call from ARATS on Thursday to invite Taiwan’s experts to visit and discuss the issue, Chiang said.
Chang said the delegation would “discuss the tainted milk powder and food safety issues” with China’s health department officials and experts. Chang said the delegation would focus the discussion on getting more knowledge about the food examination system in China.
Chiang’s statement came as an apparent departure from what Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) said on Tuesday.
At the time on the legislative floor, Liu said the government would dispatch a special task force of doctors and food safety experts to China to gain a better understanding of China’s food safety mechanisms and “investigate the melamine issue.”
The delegation will stay in Beijing during the three-day visit, and will not inspect problematic milk powder products in other parts of China, Chiang said yesterday.
In response to Chen’s scheduled visit to Taiwan next month amid the milk powder scandal, Chiang argued that Taiwan and China should continue cross-strait negotiations as the talks would help improve the economic slowdown in Taiwan.
He said that the Mainland Affairs Council had added food safety to the agenda of the second round of negotiations between SEF and ARATS scheduled for late next month or early November to lay the groundwork for long-term management of food safety.
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