Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Wei-chou (林為洲) and Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) yesterday clashed over the benefits and drawbacks of banning imports of pork products containing ractopamine in the first televised presentation organized by the Central Election Commission ahead of a Dec. 18 referendum.
Lin, who initiated the vote on the issue, said that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has misrepresented the ballot initiative as a controversy about US pork imports, even though the vote is about ractopamine in pork imports regardless of the country of origin.
The KMT has no issue with US pork, which has been sold in Taiwan for three decades and passed every safety test for ractopamine, he said.
Photo: CNA
While the government said that banning pork products containing ractopamine would affect relations with the US along with Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Lin said that the US is not applying to the trade pact and should not factor into the issue.
Citing New Zealand, Australia, and Malaysia, Lin said that CPTPP nations allow pork imports containing ractopamine, but not beef products, as their people consume more beef than pork.
Regulating beef products makes sense for these countries because it mitigates the negative effects of foreign imports on public health and domestic agriculture, he said, adding that Taiwan’s distinct dietary habits require the government to set different standards.
Screen grab from a Chinese Television System live broadcast
“Is it not ridiculous that the government’s policy is to allow pork imports containing ractopamine when our farmers cannot use it?” Lin asked.
The issue has been forced onto the referendum ballot because the KMT’s efforts to set reasonable and transparent regulations were stifled by the DPP, he added.
Chen said that 109 countries allow imports of pork and beef containing ractopamine under the Codex Alimentarius, the agricultural trade standards and guidelines created by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in 2012.
Taiwan’s pork industry is forbidden to use the substance because the country’s regulations were modeled after Japan’s, where ractopamine pork imports were deregulated in 2005, Chen said.
That the market share of US pork has decreased every year in Japan is evidence that producers of ractopamine-free pork have little to fear in a free market, he added.
The scientific consensus of food safety experts is that ractopamine in meat does not affect human health, as the substance is rapidly metabolized in animals, Chen said.
None of the 109 countries that follow the Codex Alimentarius has ever reported public health issues linked to ractopamine residue in pork, he said, adding that trade rules require that the country deregulate pork imports.
Every member of the CPTPP allows imports of pork products containing ractopamine, and Taiwan cannot expect to join the group without following its trade rules, Chen said.
“The controversy over importing ractopamine pork is not about food safety. What is at stake is the nation’s economic future and trade policy,” Chen said, adding that the outcome of the referendum could have a significant effect on the country’s relations with the US, the prospect of its CPTPP bid and its credibility with the WTO, as Taiwan has promised to liberalize its pork trade.
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