The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday urged the public to sign the Consumers’ Foundation’s online petition protesting the government’s policy to allow imports of US pork products containing traces of ractopamine.
Yesterday marked one month until US pork containing traces of the drug would be allowed to enter Taiwan and more than three months since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) announced the policy on Aug. 28, KMT Culture and Communications Committee director-general Alicia Wang (王育敏) said at a news conference in Taipei.
“In the past three months, people have been outraged, but they have also felt helpless,” Wang said.
The government has “ignored public opinion,” she said, adding that despite repeated calls for labels indicating whether a product contains ractopamine, the government has not implemented such a policy.
The lack of labels would leave people with “no option,” because after Jan. 1 they would be unable to tell whether a pork dish, such as meatballs, contains traces of the feed additive, she added.
By only requiring country of origin labeling, the government is “delegating the management of food safety to the public,” the KMT said.
Although the government has banned schools from serving pork with ractopamine traces, it has refused to amend the School Health Act (學校衛生法), without which food safety cannot be guaranteed on campuses, it said.
Only penalties prescribed by law would deter businesses from “taking chances” with school meals, but the Democratic Progressive Party caucus has blocked a proposed amendment and only agreed to revisions to the Ministry of Education’s contract for the procurement of meals, it added.
Wang questioned whether the government would have the resources to perform batch-by-batch inspections of pork imports at the border as it has promised.
Tsai turning down an invitation from KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) to debate US pork imports was an attempt to “escape supervision by public opinion,” she said, adding that it would only serve to deepen people’s doubts.
Despite a protest on Nov. 22 at which thousands of people voiced their opposition to US pork imports in front of the Presidential Office Building in Taipei, the Tsai administration has “pretended not to hear,” KMT Organizational Development Committee director-general Lee Che-hua (李哲華) said.
As the Central Election Commission has not allowed the KMT to begin collecting a second round of signatures for a petition for a referendum on the issue, the KMT urges its supporters to sign the Consumers’ Foundation’s petition, he said.
The petition had collected more than 164,000 signatures as of yesterday, the KMT said.
The National Alliance of Presidents of Parents’ Associations, the Homemakers United Foundation, the John Tung Foundation and the Swine Association are among the groups that have backed the petition.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS