Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基) yesterday took on Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials over the government’s proposed lifting of the ban on imports of 830 Chinese agricultural products for processing in the proposed free economic pilot zones, saying their concerns were based on “misinformation.”
The minister told a press conference in Taipei that he was surprised at the questions raised by Greater Kaohsiung Deputy Mayor Lee Yung-te (李永得) and Greater Tainan Deputy Mayor Yen Chun-tso (顏純左), both of the DPP, challenging the proposed liberalization policy that he said would “boost the development of agriculture.”
People should not view liberalization as a scheme to destroy the nation’s agricultural sector, he said.
“There is no chance whatsoever that we would be able to tap international market for our agricultural products if the project doesn’t go ahead as planned, the best we could hope for is that the ‘status quo’ is maintained,” Chen said.
Under the proposed project, which is stalled in the legislature, 830 agricultural products from China banned from being imported to Taiwan would be allowed to enter the pilot zones to be processed as food products.
Chen rejected the idea that food products made of agricultural materials imported from China should bear labels indicating the origin of the material to distinguish them from those made of Taiwan-grown agricultural ingredients.
Critics of the project have requested the labeling out of concern that products made of Chinese ingredients bearing the “Made in Taiwan (MIT)” brand would ruin the credibility of MIT products.
Citing the WTO’s “substantial transformation” on non-originating material rule, Chen said Taiwan is considered the country of origin of food products as long as they are manufactured in Taiwan.
National Chung Hsing University economist Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲), one of the critics, said he agreed with the minister that “substantial transformation” should be applicable to food products for exports, but added “that doesn’t mean that the government couldn’t require the labeling indicating the origin of material on products for domestic sale.”
The government should revise the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法) to require the labeling on food products for domestic sale because consumers have the right to know where the material used in food products is from, Chen Chi-chung told the Taipei Times.
To address concerns that imports of Chinese agricultural materials for use in food processing in the zones would squeeze out domestically grown agricultural products, Chen Bao-ji said that the government would require a food producer to buy locally grown material equivalent to the amount it purchases from China. He said the rule would be stipulated in a bylaw after the pilot zone draft bill is passed by the legislature.
Chen Chi-chung said the rule should be written into the pilot zone draft act to ensure its enforcement.
“More importantly, since producers in the pilot zones would enjoy tax breaks, the government should demand that they use locally grown agricultural products as their main sources of material and only import material from China when there is insufficient supply in Taiwan,” Chen Chi-chung said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
RSS