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Updated Thursday, February 16, 2012 0:00 am TWN, The China Post



	A consumer protection officer, right, raids a Fengyuan (豐原) wholesale store's beef market, double checking if all ractopamine-contaminated U.S. beef had been de-shelved, in Taichung, yesterday. (CNA) Enlarge Photo

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Health trumps all else in beef issue: Ma

By Grace Soong--President Ma Ying-jeou pledged yesterday to put the Taiwanese people's health in first priority when handling the U.S. beef issue, guaranteeing that the government has not made any promises to the U.S. government on the topic, nor was it following any set timelines on handling the issue in any specific manner.

Ma made the comments during the ruling Kuomintang's (KMT) Central Standing Committee meeting, according to a member of the committee.

According to the KMT member, Ma had pointed out that the U.S. beef row has nothing at all to do with mad cow disease, despite certain opposing parties' intentional confounding of the issue. So that the public would not be misguided, Ma had instructed relevant government officials to clarify and inform the public on the topic-namely the Council of Agriculture (COA) and Department of Health (DOH).

Also, the government has been tracking ractopamine-contaminated products within Taiwan, and all those discovered have been returned; the government has strictly followed the ban on domestic ractopamine usage, Ma was quoted to have said.

Risk Management is Key: Opposing Parties

The government should first fully establish a risk-management mechanism and evaluate what impact allowing the usage of ractopamine would have on the various industries in Taiwan before thinking about importing U.S. beef, the opposing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Consumer's Foundation (消費者文教基金會) urged, yesterday.

Allowing the import of ractopamine-contaminated U.S. beef cannot proceed before the Legislative Yuan consents, and every step of the process must be monitored by the Legislative Yuan, DPP Legislator Pan Meng-an (潘孟安) said yesterday, during a public hearing on the issue held by himself, fellow DPP Legislator Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), and Taiwan Solidarity Union (台灣團結聯盟) Legislator Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉).

Pan suggested that the government should refrain from making hasty decisions before the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) comes up with a Codex standard of ractopamine consumption, and advised the Executive Yuan to come up with thorough reports and risk-management plans on how the Taiwanese industries and the local people's health might be influenced by consuming

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