The government should ban the purchase and delivery of meat products from foreign-based shopping Web sites, such as Taobao and Pinduoduo, to better prevent African swine flu (ASF) outbreak in Taiwan, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said yesterday.
Taobao has more than 130,000 meat-related products for sale, she said, adding that the loophole undermines food safety and could be a national security issue.
She urged the Cabinet to prohibit the purchase and delivery of meat products from foreign-based online platforms, and to perform strict checks on food items at customs.
Photo: Huang Hsu-lei, Taipei Times
People are ordering sausages, pork floss, pork jerky, canned meat products and other pork or meat items on Taobao and Pinduoduo, Wu said.
“They come in small packages, so they could fly under the radar of Taiwan’s border inspection authorities,” she said.
“We did an online search for ‘Taobao meat products,’ and an advertisement jumped out saying, ‘You can buy all kinds of foodstuffs here,’ followed by a tagline that said the platform currently has 130,873 meat-related items for sale,” Wu said.
“Taobao and Pinduoduo are based in China, and meat products they sell to Taiwanese customers could potentially contain ASF or other contagious viral diseases,” she said. “Each of them could be seen as a biological weapon that could endanger our food supply chain and wreak havoc on Taiwan’s economy.”
“This is an crisis that is encroaching on Taiwan,” Wu said, adding that Chunghwa Post has been processing massive numbers of Taobao and Pinduoduo packages since August, with orders coming in at ports in Taichung and Kaohsiung and delivered to warehouses across the country.
Chunghwa Post has since August processed more than 50 cargo containers containing more than 60,000 packages in Taichung and about 60 cargo containers, with more than 90,000 packages, in Kaohsiung, she said.
“Even Chunghwa Post employees were scared of handling food packages from China, because many were sausages, meat items or moon cakes containing pork,” she added.
The Ministry of Agriculture has already mandated a ban on purchasing meat products from PChome and Shopee, e-commerce Web sites with offices based in Taiwan, “but they did not impose such a ban on foreign-based shopping sites,” she said.
Wu called for the loophole to be patched up by amending the Customs Anti-Smuggling Act (海關緝私條例) and the Act on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Animal Disease (動物傳染病防治條例).
“Cabinet officials must take action now,” she said, calling for stricter border control checks, and more severe fines and punishment for those who contravene the meat policy.
In related news, Chunghua Post regional supervisors said that since August, they have needed to work extra shifts and pay higher wages due to the increase in overtime work to process the large volume of packages arriving from China.
The packages were mainly online purchases from Taobao and Pinduoduo, they said, adding that many were labeled as containing meat products, sausages and items with pork ingredient.
All inbound parcels must undergo X-ray checks at customs and those suspected to contain animal or plant matter would be reported to local authorities for further inspections, Chunghwa Post said, adding that dogs would also used to help occasionally.
Additional reporting by Esme Yeh
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