Premier calls for quick consensus on U.S. beef

Wu said he hopes the consensus will lead to solutions that can both safeguard the people's health and keep Taiwan's promise of opening its market to U.S. beef products. The premier made the remarks after the opposition on Friday agreed to suspend a month-long boycott of legislative meetings over the lifting of a ban on high-risk beef products from the previously mad cow disease-infected country.

But the Democratic Progressive Party warned that they would continue their protest actions if lawmakers fail to reach an agreement by Dec. 17 on law revisions that could block imports of U.S. beef products. The DPP lawmakers had stalled legislative meetings for weeks trying to force revisions to the food law to make it difficult, if not impossible, for the U.S. to export potentially risky beef products to Taiwan. The KMT previously launched a version of proposed revisions to the law calling for stringent inspection on beef imports by local authorities. But it was withdrawn after the beef issue was said to be a major cause of the KMT's setback in the Dec. 5 local elections.

In its place is another version forwarded by KMT Legislator Daniel Hwang, which is close to the DPP's demand that beef products be inspected for mad cow disease-causing prion protein on the U.S. side before they are shipped to Taiwan. Hwang's version gives the administration another option, namely to abandon the protocol it has signed with Washington to open Taiwan's market to U.S. bone-in-beef.

DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen said her party would be willing to negotiate a deal with the KMT based on Hwang's and the opposition's versions.

But Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng said yesterday that the KMT side will launch yet another version. The parliament leader said all versions will be looked at in the negotiation process.

DPP legislative whip Wang Sing-nan has claimed that only U.S. slaughterhouses can test cow's brains for the prion protein, which is linked to bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, and establish the safety of the cow.

The examination fee for each cow would be NT$700 (US$22), Wang said. If the cows are turned into ground beef and imported to Taiwan without undergoing the test, it would be impossible to detect such a disease.

Wang said that to deter potentially hazardous beef from entering Taiwan, the U.S. will have to take the initiative to inspect its beef.

KMT whip Lu Hsueh-chang has also said that according to quarantine officials of the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine, only the U.S. can detect the prion protein.

“This is why the amendment will try to deter the beef from coming to Taiwan in the first place,” Lu said.

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