The Kuomintang’s (KMT) opposition to pork imports with ractopamine should not be mistaken as a stance against pork products from the United States, KMT Legislator Lin Wei-chou (???) said Saturday at a televised referendum forum.
Lin criticized the ruling Democratic Progress Party (DPP) government for deliberately causing this confusion during the first forum on a referendum question seeking to ban the imports of pork products containing the controversial livestock drug.
Lin did, however, acknowledge that KMT officials sometimes mixed up pork products containing ractopamine with U.S. pork in what he referred to as “slips of the tongue.”
The referendum question, which was initiated by Lin, asks: “Do you agree that the government should prohibit imports of pork, offal or other related products that contain the ß-agonist, ractopamine?”
The KMT initiated the referendum in an attempt to overturn the government’s decision to lift the ban on pork imports containing ractopamine at the beginning of this year.
The nation still bans the use of the drug, which is used to enable animals to grow larger and leaner, for both cattle and hogs in Taiwan.
The KMT’s motion eventually cleared two hurdles and is now scheduled to be voted on Dec. 18, along with three other referendum questions concerning a nuclear power plant, coral reefs, and future referendum arrangements.
The consumption of pork products in Taiwan is six times higher than that of beef, said Lin. He added that was why the KMT opposed pork imports with ractopamine and he called on the public to vote “yes” in the referendum.
According to Council of Agriculture data, approximately 900,000 metric tons of pork products have been consumed in Taiwan on an annual basis over the past decade. At the same time, the annual consumption of beef products on the island has risen from 114,550 metric tons in 2011 to 171,970 metric tons in 2020, the data showed.
COA Minister Chen Chi-chung (???), who represented the government which opposes the passage of the referendum, said currently about 90 percent of pork products on the island are made from Taiwanese pigs, with only 10 percent of them imported from overseas.
According to COA data, Canada, Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, and the U.S. are the major sources of pork imports in Taiwan.
Among the five pork exporters, only the U.S. has exported pork with ractopamine overseas, said Chen, adding that the referendum backed by the KMT is therefore essentially a motion against U.S. pork.
According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, ractopamine is approved for use in cattle and hogs in Canada. However, the Canadian Pork Council, an association representing 7,000 farms, has said that at least 97 percent of Canadian pork was ractopamine-free.
Denmark, Spain, and the Netherlands, on the other hand, adhere to the EU ban on the use of the drug in both meat produced in the bloc and imported from third countries.
Chen also said the quantity of U.S. beef imports in Taiwan is four times more than that of U.S. pork imports, implying it is more likely for people in Taiwan to come into contact with beef instead of pork with ractopamine.
The COA data indicated that in 2020, Taiwan imported around 54,100 tons of U.S. beef products, including meat and other parts, whereas the country imported around 16,875 tons of pork products from the U.S.
The import of U.S. beef with ractopamine was approved by the KMT government in 2012 and it has never caused any food safety problems, Chen said, questioning why the KMT now wanted to have pork with the same drug banned.
He urged people to vote “no” in the referendum, arguing it would benefit the country’s trade and economic relationship with other countries, including the U.S.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel