A woman’s appeal against a NT$200,000 fine imposed for bringing meat products into Taiwan and failing to apply for import quarantine inspection last year was rejected, but she was given permission to pay the fine in installments, the Ministry of Justice’s Administrative Enforcement Agency said on Monday, while separately a Ministry of Agriculture official said people should not bring meat products from other countries into Taiwan due to the risk of African swine fever (ASF).
A retired teacher surnamed Yang (楊) was in July last year stopped at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport trying to bring two long sushi rolls containing ham from Hong Kong and fined NT$200,000 by quarantine authorities due to the risk of ASF.
The case was transferred to the New Taipei Branch of the Administrative Enforcement Agency the following month.
Photo: CNA
Yang filed an appeal against the fine saying that she and her husband took their daughter who has panic attacks to Disneyland in Hong Kong last July in an attempt to help relieve stress, the agency said in a statement.
Yang said when at Hong Kong International Airport to take their flight to Taiwan, her daughter got hungry and Yang bought two long sushi rolls — one for her daughter to eat and one for relatives in Taiwan, it said.
Yang said she thought sushi rolls only had seaweed and vegetables, and did not know they contained meat until a sniffer dog detected it, according to the statement.
Yang’s appeal against the fine was rejected and she asked to pay it in monthly installments of NT$10,000.
The agency approved her request to pay in installments, taking into account Yang’s retired status and limited income.
As the Lunar New Year holiday approaches, the Ministry of Agriculture on Tuesday said people should not bring meat products from other countries into Taiwan due to the risk of ASF.
ASF is found in 79 countries and since the first reports of the virus in China in August 2018, there has been an increased concern over the spread of the disease in Asia, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency (APHIA) Deputy Director-General Hsu Jung-pin (徐榮彬) told a news conference on Tuesday.
Taiwan and Japan are the only ASF-free countries in East Asia, Hsu added.
From August 2018 to Jan. 15, of the 6,795 meat products tested, 639 came back positive for ASF, including 529, or 83 percent, from China, Hsu said.
The positive detection rate for the ASF virus reached a high of 9.89 percent among confiscated pork products from China, Hsu added.
ASF is a high-threat foreign animal disease that is highly transmissible and results in up to 100 percent mortality in swine.
Although the disease does not harm humans, it has the potential to hurt Taiwan’s pork industry, the APHIA said.
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