Legislature urged not to violate WTO spirit in beef import laws

Wang said that under the premise that the Taiwan-U.S. pact on beef imports and Taiwan's international obligations as a WTO member won't be violated, the Presidential Office respects actions taken by the legislature to safeguard the security of the nation and the health of nationals.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet is inclined to conditionally support the amendment of the Food Hygiene Administration Law to quench public worries about imports of U.S. beef products.

The Cabinet will move to intensively negotiate with the legislature over the wording of the amendments and over the inclusion of a spate of measures to control beef imports from the U.S. in the amendments.

As a member of the WTO, Taiwan shouldn't revise laws to restrict imports of any particular products from any particular nation, as that would bring Taiwan more international trade barriers.

Also yesterday, the Taipei City Government took its first concrete step to boycott the new market opening to U.S. beef by issuing signs to be displayed by stores that have joined an alliance to reject the sale or use of what critics believe are potentially hazardous products.

In a symbolic move, Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin tagged the first city government-issued logo on a retail outlet of the Matsusei supermarket chain on the city's Xinyi Road to indicate that the store will not supply U.S. beef offal, ground beef or spinal cords.

Hau said more than 1,200 businesses, including restaurants, supermarket chains, fast food outlets, vending booths in traditional marketplaces and legally licensed street vendors, have signed up to join the city government organized self-management alliance over health concerns about beef products from the U.S.

If stores carrying the alliance logo are found selling or using U.S. ground beef, offal or spinal cords, they will be stripped of their certificates and fined in accordance with the Consumer Protection Law, Hau said.

Asked whether the city government's move is likely to create a backlash from the United States, Hau pointed out that the city government is perfectly within its legal rights to take the action.

“We believe the U.S. authorities will understand our stance because their local governments are also authorized to administer their jurisdictions on their own within legal boundaries,” Hau said.

“Our efforts to strike a balance between upholding government policy and protecting the public's health and their right to know are in our national interest,” he added.

Citing the results of a survey conducted by the city's Research, Development and Evaluation Commission Oct. 26-29, Hau said 75 percent of the respondents supported the boycott.

Meanwhile, 71 percent said they will select restaurants with the boycott sign when they eat out. The survey collected 1,727 valid samples, with a margin of error of 2.4 percent.

While some local government chiefs have endorsed a campaign for a referendum that would require the administration to renegotiate a beef trade protocol with the United States, Hau refused to sign such a petition when two city councilors presented him with the opportunity a day earlier.

Several civic groups launched the signature drive Nov. 1 with the aim of collecting 90,000 signatures in 14 days to express their opposition to the recent lifting of a ban on imports of U.S. bone-in beef and beef products, including beef offal, from cattle younger than 30 months.

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