U.S. denies halting beef exports

When asked by reporters to comment on the report in the United Evening News, William Stanton, director of the Taipei Office of the Washington-based American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), said he had never heard of such a decision.

After calling on Education Minister Wu Ching-chi to discuss exchanges concerning educational cooperation, Stanton reemphasized the safety of U.S. beef products.

The American envoy to Taiwan said he did not learn of any plan by U.S. beef exporters to halt sales of beef products to Taiwan as reported in the evening daily paper.

In his earlier statements, Stanton said it is impossible to reopen talks on the beef trade issue.

Meanwhile, Wu Chiu-heng, an official at the Taiwan office of the U.S. Meat Association, clarified that his association is not a government agency and has no right to make such a decision reached by official negotiators of Taiwan and the U.S.

Wu also categorically denied that anyone from his association has said that U.S. beef exporters had already decided to postpone indefinitely shipments to Taiwan.

Officials at the Department of Health (DOH) also said that they received no such information from the U.S.

They stressed the enforcement of tighter inspection of beef imports to allay the safety concerns of consumers here.

Officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the government's policy of easing the imports of U.S. beef products has remained unchanged.

Under the latest bilateral beef trade agreement, U.S. bone-in beef, ground beef, intestines, brains, spinal cords and processed beef from cattle younger than 30 months that have not been contaminated with “specific risk materials” will be allowed to enter Taiwan starting Nov. 10.

According to the schedule, Taiwanese importers may submit applications to import T-bone steaks from the U.S. as early as mid-November if they decide to do so.

Consumers groups in Taiwan have been strongly opposing the relaxation on imports over the concern of possibly catching bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease although U.S. officials said such worries are unwarranted because American beef products have been certified by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) as safe to consume.

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