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Updated Wednesday, November 4, 2009 9:48 am TWN, CNA No need for U.S. beef referendum: WuHe also quashed the suggestion from some quarters that the government needs to renegotiate the beef issue with the U.S. The government has confidence in its ability to protect the people's health and safety and will impose strict standards to prevent questionable U.S. beef products from entering the country, he said. The Cabinet-level Department of Health (DOH) on Monday formally posted a notice of its amended regulations on U.S. beef imports, officially lifting a ban on U.S. bone-in beef, ground beef and beef offal from cattle younger than 30 months. Since the government announced on Oct. 23 its decision to expand imports of U.S. beef, several civic groups have been pushing for renegotiation of the protocol with the U.S. and have launched a drive to collect 90,000 signatures in 14 days in the first step to petitioning for a referendum to be held on the issue. However, Premier Wu said yesterday that leaving the matter up to the country's “good-hearted citizens,” instead of trusting the judgment of the DOH, Legislative Yuan, and World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), would reflect populism instead of reliance on calm and rational analysis. He said it is impossible to renegotiate the issue with the U.S. at this stage and gave the assurance that new measures introduced by the DOH will prevent the entry of any dubious beef products. He noted that compared to some European countries and South Korea, Taiwan's regulations on U.S. beef imports are more stringent. As long there are controls at the source and there are measures to prevent questionable U.S. beef products from entering Taiwan markets, there is no need to worry, he said. One of the DOH's new regulations states that frozen ground beef and offal imported from the U.S. would have to be defrosted upon arrival in the country, a requirement that would effectively block the controversial meat products without violating the protocol. Comments November 4, 2009 johnny.brian@ Reply Import US beef does not require a referendum. But use referendum on national issues. To make things simple, follow the format of other countries such as Japan or EU on how they import US beef. |
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