Fri, Oct 30, 2015 page3

• Trade in goods agreement with China meets protests

  • By Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter
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  A trade in goods agreement with China would flood the market with cheap Chinese foodstuffs, undermining food safety and harming the agricultural sector, protesters said yesterday during a protest outside the Executive Yuan, calling for negotiations to be halted.

  Homemakers United Foundation secretary-general Lai Hsiao-fen (賴曉芬) said government negotiators were considering dropping regular inspection requirements for Chinese foodstuffs, potentially allowing them to be imported without any inspection as long as the importers sign a letter of guarantee sayinh they meet Taiwanese regulatory standards.

  “The agreement would increase food safety risks because Chinese regulations are not rigorous enough. At a time when Taiwan’s own food safety problems are worsening, if we allow large amounts of Chinese products in, I believe our own government would not be able to provide effective regulation,” said Hsu Hsiu-chaio (許秀嬌), Homemakers Union Consumers Co-op chairperson, saying that food-quality imported Chinese medicinal herbs often contain unsafe levels of fertilizer residues and heavy metals.

  

  Protesters outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei yesterday call on the government to halt negotiations with China on a trade-in-goods agreement. They say the proposed agreement would undermine food safety and damage Taiwan’s agricultural sector.

  Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times

  She said that because of the safety risks, the herbs already occupied a disproportionate portion of the testing budget of her organization, which is an organic food cooperative founded by environmental group the Homemakers United Foundation.

  A trade in goods agreement would flood the domestic market with Chinese foodstuffs, she said.

  “As China is very large and does not have rigorous regulations, their costs are lower. Businesspeople will choose the foodstuffs that cost the least, battering our agricultural sector,” she said.

  Taiwan Rural Front spokesperson Chen Ping-hsuan (陳平軒) said he condemned the government for refusing to publish a full list of products being negotiated.

  Even if the government kept its promise of refusing to drop protections for agricultural products, decreasing tariffs on imported processed foodstuffs would still shock the market for some agricultural goods, he said.

  He cited the market for red beans, saying that 70 percent of beans produced domestically are used to make red bean paste.

  The agricultural sector and food safety should not sacrificed for the interests of the petrochemical, automotive and flat panel industry, he said, citing products Taiwanese negotiators have targeted for tariff reductions.

  The protesters called for negotiations to be halted until a bill for establishing a mechanism to oversee cross-strait agreements is passed by the Legislative Yuan, also calling for meaningful participation in negotiations by civic groups along with better transitional mechanisms to help affected sectors.

  Minister of Economic Affairs John Deng (鄧振中) earlier this month said that safety testing was a “critical” part of the negotiations, adding that Taiwanese negotiators would insist on the nation’s right to continue testing, refusing to accept Chinese safety certificates.
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