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By Mo Yan-chih
/ Staff reporter Mon, Mar 05, 2012 - Page 3 Faced with domestic concerns
about the safety of US beef and pressure from Washington on US beef imports,
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) held a closed-door meeting
on Friday night with Cabinet officials and explored ways to resolve the
matter. However, the three-hour
meeting failed to yield a new strategy. Presidential Office spokesman Fan
Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基)
said the president reiterated the government’s
neutral stance on handling the US beef import issue, saying there was no
timetable and no presumptions, adding that the government would respect
professional opinions from experts while making public health a top priority. For analysts, the Ma
administration’s indecisiveness shows its political opportunism in handling
the issue, which could have serious consequences if the government fails to
resolve the disputes in a timely manner. Political critic
Shih Cheng-feng (施正鋒) of National Dong
Hwa University said the Ma administration
underestimated public concerns over the health risk of the feed additive used
in US beef when it promised Washington to resolve the issue soon, and any
attempts to prove that ractopamine posed no harm to
the human body would fail as the issue carried political implications. “Politics and
diplomacy are involved in the US beef import issue. Handling such a delicate
issue is a great challenge for Ma and he and the Chinese Nationalist Party
[KMT] will pay a price if he ignores domestic opposition against the
importation of US beef and succumbs to US pressure,” he said. Washington has been pressing
Taipei to relax its ban on imported meat containing ractopamine
residue, which was imposed in 2006. The US extended the suspension of talks
under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) between the two
sides after Taiwan blocked shipments of US beef containing residue of the
lean-meat enhancing additive last year. Soon after his re-election in
-January, Ma sat down with -American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman
Raymond Burghardt in Taipei and promised that the
new Cabinet would address the US beef import issue after re-assuming office
last month. The meeting sparked
speculation about the government’s attempt to ease its ractopamine
residue ban as a result of US pressure, especially as Taiwan seeks to proceed
with the TIFA talks with the US while seeking to join the Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP). The postponement of a visit
to Taipei by US Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco
Sanchez, who was -scheduled to arrive yesterday, is said to be a latest move
from the US to put more pressure on the Ma administration to address the matter. Facing mounting concerns
about the health risks of the feed additive, KMT legislators joined the
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in opposing the imports of US beef. Even former Department of
Health minister Yaung Chih-liang
(楊志良)
said it was unlikely that the expert meeting on the effect of ractopamine on the human body could reach a conclusion
and it would be “unwise” for Ma if he succumbed to US pressure and forcefully
lifted the ban on the use of ractopamine in meat
products. *
《Taipei times》2012/03/05。
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