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



	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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Law to ban U.S. beef

Two DPP-proposed supplementary resolutions, on confining imported U.S. beef to products from cattle younger than 30 months and no bone-in beef before a referendum, will be top of the agenda when the legislature meets on the issue again on Jan. 5.

Negotiations on a revision to the act regarding beef imports from the U.S. had a turbulent start yesterday as the KMT caucus — which has a majority advantage — was ready for a showdown, while the DPP blocked the rostrum.

With the whole morning wasted in the confrontation, Legislative Speaker, Wang Jin-pyng, invited members of the KMT and DPP caucuses to negotiate.

A consensus was finally reached in the afternoon after two hours of discussion with the participation of DPP Chairwoman, Tsai Ing-wen.

As the DPP gave way to a KMT proposal on the issue whilst maintaining some reservations, Tsai said afterward that the DPP caucus had tried its best to protect the health of the public and that there is a great deal of follow-up work demanding the efforts of all parties.

The controversy over U.S. beef arose in early November when the Department of Health (DOH) announced that the government had signed a protocol in Washington to open Taiwan's market to bone-in U.S. beef.

The government has imposed the “three controls” and “five certifications” system including setting controls on beef imports at the source, at borders and in markets to safeguard public health.

There is also a “five-certifications” mechanism for verifying certification documents, checking that shipments are marked with detailed product information, opening a high percentage of cartons of imported beef to check the product, conducting food safety tests and the ability to get information on suspected problem products immediately.

But the DPP has successfully used the beef issue to upstage the KMT by depicting the U.S. as a major bully forcing U.S. beef down Taiwan's throat while blasting the Ma administration's failure to stand up against the U.S. pressure.

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