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Updated Wednesday, December 30, 2009 9:36 am TWN, The China Post news staff

Law to ban U.S. beef

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The government will strive to communicate with the United States (U.S.) in order to limit possible damage to two-way relations after lawmakers from ruling and opposition camps reached a consensus to revise regulations and ban imports of ground beef and bovine offal from the U.S.

Upon learning about the legislative decision, Thomas Hodges, spokesman and public affairs section chief of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) expressed disappointment and said Washington would make an announcement later.

Presidential Office spokesman, Wang Yu-chi, said the government will try hard to communicate with the U.S. regarding the legislature consensus and “hopes the damage can be minimized and severe impact on the two-way relations avoided.”

Wang said the Presidential Office respects the resolution of the legislature to revise the Act Governing Food Sanitation and appreciates that the Legislative Yuan has promised to shoulder the responsibility for any consequences.

He added that the Presidential Office has continuously negotiated with legislators over the U.S. beef issue for two months, while successfully implementing its control measures of “three controls” and “five certifications” to make sure that no ground beef and offal enters the domestic market.

When asked to make his response, Chang Chi-ping, Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy director-general of information, said the ministry would follow international guidelines on the matter, respecting the protocol on the one hand and taking into consideration the health of the public on the other.

The legislative caucus of opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) accepted a revised motion of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) after several rounds of confrontation.

Representatives from the two parties reached a compromise by agreeing to write into the Act Governing Food Sanitation that hazardous substances, including cattle skulls, brains, eyes, spinal cords, intestines, ground beef and other related beef products from areas in which mad cow disease has been reported in the past 10 years are banned from being imported.

A supplementary resolution proposed by the KMT caucus that “in case of aroused international pressure, legislative caucuses and the administration should jointly face the consequences,” was adopted.

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	Taking over the speaker's seat and stalling the meeting of the Legislative Yuan after several rounds of confrontations, legislators of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) reached a consensus yesterday with KMT lawmakers on a plan to revise rules to ban imports of ground beef and bovine offal from the U.S. (CNA) Enlarge Photo


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