Minister Yaung Chih-liang of Department of Health (DOH) made public the measures at a press conference in the company of Minister of Economics Affairs Shih Yen-shiang, Minister Chen Wu-hsiung of the Council of Agriculture (COA), and Cabinet spokesman Su Jun-pin.

The newly revised regulations on import of American beef products expanded the list of U.S. products allowed into the Taiwan market. They will include items that contain no specified risk materials (SRMs) and from cattle younger than 30 months, covering skulls, backbones, brain matter, and certain intestine parts and organs.

Faced with strong opposition from lawmakers and consumers organizations against the trade liberalization move, DOH Minister Yaung said the accompanying safety inspection measures and standards will be adequate to safeguard the people's health.

Yaung said no U.S. beef products are not allowed into the Taiwan market from suppliers without quality system assessment (QSA) certification from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

In addition, Taiwan's own administrative measure empowers government agencies to conduct 5 to 100 inspection of imported beef products depending on possible risks involved.

This means that every batch of imported internal organs and ground beef products will be subject to defreezing and then thorough tissue examination, Yaung explained.

Yaung said similar practice has been implemented successfully in South Korea. He promised the quarantine and inspection measure will be more rigorous than in most countries.

Managers at leading wholesale and discount stores like Carrefour, RT-Mart, A.mart, and Costco said they have no plan to import the controversial products like ground beef and internal organs with the belief that they not will not find reasonably enough buyers.

But they agreed that there is still potential for growth in U.S. beef products in Taiwan because their market share here is still smaller than those of Australian and New Zealand products.

Despite repeated assurance from U.S. officials about the safety of U.S. beef products about the concern over possibly catching bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or mad cow disease, consumers group and the lawmakers show now signs of ending protest against U.S. products.

The opposition Democratic Progressive Party demanded government clarification concerning a report that the government will consider further relaxing the import restrictions in the future, including removing the requirement that the beef products have to come from cattle younger than 30 months.

A Cabinet spokesman denied the allegation.

The DPP is also helping organizations to win consumers' support to pressure the government to reopen the trade talks on beef import with the U.S.

Foreign Minister Timothy Yang said in an interview that the government should honor its commitment in reaching the deal with the U.S.

Renegotiating with the U.S. could exclude many other nations from engaging in talks with the nation, Yang said.

To counter the opposition sentiments here, the Taiwan office of the U.S. Meat Export Association issued a public letter to Taiwan consumers stressing American meat suppliers' commitment to quality and safety control.

While reemphasizing the confidence in safety of U.S. beef products on behalf of cattle raisers in 50 U.S. states, the association said it fully supports the government's measures of stringent inspection of products for consumers' health as well as other steps like putting stickers showing the origin of product sources by stores and restaurants.

The group is also launching a campaign to distribute the association's own product logos on the Taiwan market in a bid to promote the U.S. beef products, which amounted to 27,000 metric tons in local market in 2008.