Civic groups push for beef talks with U.S. to be restarted

The Consumers' Foundation said it had worked with the Homemaker's Union and Foundation, the John Tung Foundation and others since Nov. 1 to collect 132,402 signatures supporting a referendum to re-open talks with Washington on U.S. beef imports.

“The government should address consumers' concerns and answer their appeals to ensure public safety,” a Consumers' Foundation official said.

Washington and Taipei signed a protocol on Oct. 22 under which Taiwan agreed to lift its ban on bone-in beef and other beef products — including ground beef and beef offal — from the U.S., sparking a huge public outcry.

Civic groups and politicians contended that allowing the entry of U.S. ground beef, beef offal and other parts that had been previously barred could potentially endanger the health of Taiwan's consumers by exposing them to bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease.

When the government rejected their appeals to re-open talks on the issue with the U.S. government, the groups decided to force the issue by launching a drive for a national referendum on whether or not the protocol should be renegotiated.

Under Taiwan's referendum law, a referendum proposal must pass two thresholds to be accepted. In the initial stage, signatures from 0.5 percent, or 86,000, of the 17.32 million eligible voters of the last presidential election must be collected, a threshold that has been now met by the civic groups.

If a referendum screening committee finds that the proposed referendum conforms to legal guidelines, the referendum's sponsors then need to collect signatures of endorsement from 5 percent of the voters, or 860,000 signatures, for the question to be put to a referendum.

Those thresholds could prevent the referendum bid from reaching a vote, but, in the meantime, other actions have been taken to keep out U.S. beef imports that are considered by the civic groups potentially hazardous.

The Taipei City government has encouraged the city's 15,000 hotels, department stores, hypermarts and restaurants to form an alliance whose members will reject sales of U.S. beef offal, ground beef and spinal cords or their use as ingredients over health concerns.

Meanwhile, lawmakers could not reach a consensus Friday on how to revise existing food safety laws to address public concerns on the safety of U.S. beef.

Opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators support an amendment that would “ban the entry” of risky beef parts while governing Kuomintang (KMT) legislators prefer a stringent control and inspection system to ensure that only safe meat enters the country.

The legislature is scheduled to consider the issue again on Nov. 24.

Taiwan first banned U.S. beef in 2003 when a case of mad cow disease surfaced in Seattle. The ban was lifted in April 2005 to allow imports of U.S. de-boned beef from cattle under 30 months old, but the ban was reimposed two months later when a second BSE case was discovered in the United States.

In 2006, the DOTH agreed to allow beef imports once again, but limited them to boneless beef from cattle younger than 30 months produced by certified slaughterhouses and without any risky parts.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email