Council of Agriculture (COA) Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) yesterday said the Consumers’ Foundation was defending Chinese policies, after it accused Chen of “always opposing China” when Beijing bans imports of Taiwanese products.
The foundation earlier that day said in a news release that it had tested locally farmed groupers after China banned imports of the fish.
Before saying that the groupers passed the inspection, the news release criticized Chen’s handling of the ban, saying he had acted “too emotionally” and that he “always opposes China.”
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
Chen said he welcomed the findings, but chided the foundation’s description of his actions.
“This won’t give people the sense that this is the Republic of China’s Consumers’ Foundation,” he said. “Maybe it’s the People’s Republic of China’s Consumers’ Foundation.”
The foundation criticized Chen for responding to China’s ban by having the groupers tested by the National Animal Industry Foundation (NAIF), which is under the oversight of the council.
The Consumers’ Foundation said Chen simultaneously acted as “player and referee,” and that an independent body should have been tasked with the testing.
“NAIF’s labs are all certified and undergo inspections, but having a third party such as ourselves do the testing” would have boosted the government’s credibility, it said.
The Consumers’ Foundation said the government should aim to boost cooperation with China, as the economies on either side of the Taiwan Strait are interdependent.
“The cross-strait relationship is not good now, but we should overcome that by removing prejudice and hostility,” it said. “We should cooperate to ensure banned agricultural drugs are not used by either side.”
The Consumers’ Foundation questioned whether Chen’s “emotional language and attitude” in response to the ban was intended to “shift the focus away from the poor management of the grouper production and marketing system.”
The Consumers’ Foundation’s 13-page news release criticized Chen, the council and other government agencies on pages 1 to 5, before describing the tests it conducted on locally farmed groupers.
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