The Council of Agriculture (COA) yesterday said it would implement stricter plant quarantine at customs and has proposed corrective measures to vendors after the US returned Taiwanese exports of butterfly orchids, citing weeds found on their culture media.
Taiwan and the US signed an agreement in 2004 that allows Taiwan to export butterfly orchids with their culture media to the US.
The incident came to light after Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lai Hui-yuan (賴惠員) expressed concern over Taiwan’s orchid industry at a question-and-answer session in the legislature.
Photo: CNA
Lai asked COA Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) whether he was aware that the American Institute in Taiwan informed the council’s Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine last month about the orchids being sent back from the US.
Chen said that vendors had reported the incident, and he had asked the bureau and concerned agencies to come up with solutions.
The COA has been communicating with the US and would come up with ways to manage the weed problem before exporting the products to ensure that Taiwan’s butterfly orchids can continue to be sold to the US, he said.
The vendors have been cooperating with the bureau in handling the issue, he said, adding that the council was looking for loans to help the vendors get through the difficulty.
Bureau Director-General Tu Wen-jane (杜文珍) said that it had asked the US not to suspend imports of butterfly orchids from Taiwan.
Meanwhile, local vendors said that it was their responsibility to protect their business and would step up vigilance to address the problem, she said.
The US on Sept. 7 reported that weeds were detected in 16 batches of butterfly orchids and that it would suspend imports of the product if the problem arises again, Weng Yi-tzu (翁壹姿), head of the bureau’s plant quarantine division, told reporters.
The bureau on Sept. 21 held an emergency meeting with the US, saying that it would take time to make adjustments and solve the problem while some of the products had been shipped, she said.
The US agreed that weeds detected before Sept. 21 would not be counted as a second violation, she added.
The bureau also visited the vendors whose culture media of the butterfly orchids were found to contain weeds to understand the situation and offer advice on improvements, she said.
Thirty-five earthquakes have exceeded 5.5 on the Richter scale so far this year, the most in 14 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said on Facebook on Thursday. A large earthquake in Hualien County on April 3 released five times as much the energy as the 921 Earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, the agency said in its latest earthquake report for this year. Hualien County has had the most national earthquake alerts so far this year at 64, with Yilan County second with 23 and Changhua County third with nine, the agency said. The April 3 earthquake was what caused the increase in
INTIMIDATION: In addition to the likely military drills near Taiwan, China has also been waging a disinformation campaign to sow division between Taiwan and the US Beijing is poised to encircle Taiwan proper in military exercise “Joint Sword-2024C,” starting today or tomorrow, as President William Lai (賴清德) returns from his visit to diplomatic allies in the Pacific, a national security official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said that multiple intelligence sources showed that China is “highly likely” to launch new drills around Taiwan. Although the drills’ scale is unknown, there is little doubt that they are part of the military activities China initiated before Lai’s departure, they said. Beijing at the same time is conducting information warfare by fanning skepticism of the US and
DEFENSE: This month’s shipment of 38 modern M1A2T tanks would begin to replace the US-made M60A3 and indigenous CM11 tanks, whose designs date to the 1980s The M1A2T tanks that Taiwan expects to take delivery of later this month are to spark a “qualitative leap” in the operational capabilities of the nation’s armored forces, a retired general told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview published yesterday. On Tuesday, the army in a statement said it anticipates receiving the first batch of 38 M1A2T Abrams main battle tanks from the US, out of 108 tanks ordered, in the coming weeks. The M1 Abrams main battle tank is a generation ahead of the Taiwanese army’s US-made M60A3 and indigenously developed CM11 tanks, which have
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unlikely to attempt an invasion of Taiwan during US president-elect Donald Trump’s time in office, Taiwanese and foreign academics said on Friday. Trump is set to begin his second term early next year. Xi’s ambition to establish China as a “true world power” has intensified over the years, but he would not initiate an invasion of Taiwan “in the near future,” as his top priority is to maintain the regime and his power, not unification, Tokyo Woman’s Christian University distinguished visiting professor and contemporary Chinese politics expert Akio Takahara said. Takahara made the comment at a
RSS