Beef war may doom Ma to start lame duck term early

The Democratic Progressive Party seized the opportunity to rouse any hidden anti-American feelings among the people of Taiwan to a feverish height to humiliate the Kuomintang administration for kowtowing to bullying from Uncle Sam.

A referendum was organized. If adopted, it would compel Taiwan to revoke the beef import pact and negotiate a new deal. That made U.S. Deputy Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis complain that the lawmakers in Taipei “effaced sound science and effaced the protocol Taiwan and the United States had negotiated,” and said Washington was contemplating using all possible means to resolve its differences with Taiwan, including the WTO court. In the end, the Food Safety Act was so amended as to virtually ban the risky beef and beef offal, but Washington stopped further negotiating of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) with Taiwan.

Another beef war is being fought now across the Pacific as well as in Taiwan. Raymond F. Burghardt, chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan, came all the way from Washington immediately after the Chinese New Year festival to suggest unequivocally that Taiwan's ban on American beef with residues of the food additive ractopamine, available under the brand name Payleen, is holding up TIFA negotiations, which Taipei hopes will somehow take the place of a free trade agreement between the two countries. The contemplated lifting of the ban kicked off an internecine war in Taiwan, with beef cattle raisers as well as hog farm owners up in arms against a probable follow-up end to imports of pork with Payleen residue.

The conflict is spreading to the political front. More than 30 opposition lawmakers demanded on last Friday that President Ma Ying-jeou appear before the Legislative Yuan to explain the process of how he is going to decide whether he will lift the ban on American beef with ractopamine residue. Ma is having a hard time deciding whether to comply. He went on the record during the 2012 presidential campaign, saying he would face interpellation on the floor of the parliament with regard to important or divisive policies. Of course, he can refuse to go to face opposition legislators by brushing aside the beef import ban as an unimportant policy. However, that would antagonize the livestock industry and people who believe the government should take action to protect their right to food safety. So Ma is resorting to delaying action. His spokesman declined comment in response to the call for presidential interpellation until after the demand would be made and passed as a resolution of the Legislative Yuan.

The chances are that Ma's ruling Kuomintang, which has only a majority of seven in the 133-seat parliament, cannot stop such a resolution from being adopted and he may have to appear before hostile lawmakers for questioning on whether he will lift the ban or not. He may successfully defend himself by answering the questions before the Legislative Yuan, but his real problem is: If a precedent is made, he may have to go to the Legislature in his second and last term for interpellation, like every one of his Cabinet ministers, every time the opposition lawmakers label a government policy as an important or divisive one.

The 2009 beef war saw Su Chi resign as secretary-general of the National Security Council. The new beef war is likely to make President Ma's lame duck years start far ahead of May 20, when he is set to be sworn in for the second term.

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