The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday criticized the government’s plan to lift a ban on most food imports from Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture and surrounding areas, saying that the proposal was “full of rough edges” and could not guarantee children’s health.
The government announced the plan on Tuesday.
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) on Wednesday called for amendments to the School Health Act (學校衛生法) to ensure students’ health, but his statement was dismissed by the governing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus yesterday as “clueless,” saying that the act already stipulates that “priority be given to local produce.”
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
“The DPP is the one being clueless, defending the wrong policy by distorting facts,” KMT spokeswoman Chiang I-chen (江怡臻) said yesterday.
Article 23 of the act states that local produce should be prioritized, not that it should be the only source, providing a loophole to allow schools to use produce from Fukushima, Chiang said, adding that Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) has said that school lunches nationwide use 7 percent of non-Taiwanese produce.
The DPP has “resorted to slander in its haste to support its policy, which is unacceptable,” Chiang said.
The decision to lift the ban on Fukushima imports without public consultation was “hasty” and “goes against everything the DPP stands for,” she said, adding that the KMT is siding with the people and focusing its efforts on food safety.
The KMT has “zero tolerance” for lapses in food security, especially regarding children, and would apply strict standards to prevent schools from serving food imported from Fukushima, she said.
Separately yesterday, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the KMT said that no Fukushima food imports would be allowed in schools in New Taipei City if there is any doubt about its safety.
“Schools will not use any food imported from the region if children’s health cannot be guaranteed,” Hou said.
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