The Office of US Trade Rep critical of tightened inspections on beef tongues

Taiwan has denied the charge that it has broken its bilateral protocol on beef imports with the United States by tightening inspection procedures, the deputy chief of the Department of Health (DOH) said Tuesday.

The Office of US Trade Representative said Monday that Taiwan's decision to inspect imported US beef tongue batch-by-batch was inconsistent with the protocol, but the DOH's Hsiao Mei-ling disagreed, saying that the protocol allows Taiwan to impose measures to control US beef at points of entry.

Hsiao explained that in the second article of the protocol - which opened Taiwan's market to imports of US bone-in-beef and other beef parts - the US side promised that Taiwan's inspection and quarantine procedures would be respected.

The provision authorizes Taiwan's measures of "three-control" mechanisms and "five certifications", as well as the provisions, Hsiao said, adding that the imports also come under the Act Governing Food Sanitation Act, reiterating that Taiwan has done nothing to violate the terms of the protocol.

The measures set controls on beef imports at the source, at borders and in markets. The five certifications include verifying certification documents and checking that shipments are marked with detailed product information.

They also involve opening a high percentage of cartons of imported beef to check the product, conducting food safety tests and being able to get information on suspected problem products immediately.

Both the DOH and the "Ministry of Economic Affairs" (MOEA) said at a joint press conference the previous day that certain beef offal items allowed to be imported to Taiwan - including tongues, penises, testicles, tails, tendons and diaphragms - should come from among 40 US government-certified butchers.

Once tongue imports arrive, they will be subject to batch-by-batch inspections. The same complete check will also be used for other imported beef cuts, but if they pass the checks, only 5 percent of the cartons in subsequent shipments will be inspected, officials said.

The DOH and the MOEA's bureau of external trade held another press conference Tuesday, adding diaphragms and testicles to beef tongue as items that will undergo strict batch-by-batch checks.

Bureau Director-General Huang Chih-peng said the importer who applied on April 15 to import 453 kilograms of beef tongue and diaphragms - which started the controversy - had called the bureau to withdraw an application for an import permit, saying the goods had yet to be shipped by the supplier.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 04/21/2010 page4)