The Executive Yuan yesterday said it does not plan to lift a ban on food imports from five Japanese prefectures, one day after the Ministry of Health and Welfare suggested it might change import restrictions.
Food imports from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures have been suspended since the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster in March 2011.
The government might consider easing the rules on non-contaminated products from those areas, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said on Monday.
The comment rekindled a debate about Japanese food products, with critics and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) accusing the government of attempting to trade food safety for entry into the Japan-led Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
The Executive Yuan disputed the allegation, saying there is no plan to lift or change the ban, and the government would not use public health and safety as a bargaining chip.
The Executive Yuan is not in talks with the ministry about reviewing the ban and there is no plan to lift it, Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said.
The government will protect food safety and public health, and take international and scientific standards into consideration when dealing with Japanese food imports, Hsu said, reiterating the government’s position since 2016.
“There is no such thing as trading the ban for the CPTPP, and there is no timetable for the trade negotiation,” Hsu said.
The Cabinet has not changed its position on the regulations, Office of Food Safety Director Sheu Fuu (許輔) said.
A KMT campaign against deregulating Japanese food imports in 2016 indicated strong public disapproval of allowing food imports from the five prefectures, KMT caucus secretary-general Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said.
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS