Many gourmets still addicted to U.S. beef despite BSE threat

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 should 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 last 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.

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