Discussions should continue on whether to lift the ban on food imports from five Japanese prefectures since the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) said yesterday.
Following a meltdown at the power plant, Taiwan imposed a ban on food imports from the prefectures of Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba.
In the past few months, there has been speculation as to whether the government is mulling to lift the ban, as it might be a hurdle in the nation’s bid to join the Japan-led Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Discussion on Japanese food imports is unavoidable, Chiu said, urging the government to hold public hearings and start interagency dialogues before entering negotiations with Japan.
Asked about the issue, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said that a majority of Taiwanese in a referendum in 2018 opposed lifting the ban.
If the DPP considers allowing imports from the area, another referendum should be held, Ma said.
In the 2018 referendum, proposed by former KMT deputy chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), 77 percent voted in favor of maintaining the ban.
Asked if allowing the imports is on the government’s agenda, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said that there is at present no discussion on the matter.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a report published in May said that traces of radioactive isotopes — mostly cesium-134 and cesium-137 — found in food products from the area in 2018 were within the legal limits.
While the meltdown at the power plant mostly released radioactive cesium and iodine-131 to the environment, some experts said that food from the area might also be polluted with strontium-90.
Subsequent tests by the FDA showed no traces of strontium-90, the agency said.
The report in May said that the concentration of the radioactive elements is key to assessing the risk for consumption, rather than whether traces of the isotopes are found in food products.
Authorities should communicate the report’s findings to the public to establish a science-based debate, the FDA said.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiao-kuang and CNA
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