U.S. Beef Imports Issue Goes into LY Extraordinary Session

U.S. Beef Imports Issue Goes into LY Extraordinary Session

Source: All Taipei Newspapers

Jun. 18, 2012

The first session of the 8^th Legislative Yuan adjourned on June 15^th, yet the amendment bill to the Food Safety Act (食品衛生管理法), which is closely linked to whether the government would lift the ban on imports of U.S. beef products containing traces of ractopamine, still failed to be passed. The KMT party caucus has proposed holding an extraordinary session to take a final vote on the issue. Therefore, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) announced that he would convoke a consultation meeting between the ruling and opposition party caucuses this morning to discuss the KMT’s proposal for an extraordinary session in order to resolve the U.S. beef imports issue.

On the other hand, the three opposition party caucuses, i.e., the Democratic Progressive Party caucus, the People First Party caucus, and the Taiwan Solidarity Union caucus, have reportedly reached a consensus that the proposed extraordinary session should be convoked only after a standard for permissible quantities of ractopamine residue in meat products was determined by the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) on July 2^nd. Nevertheless, the KMT party caucus, in a majority vote, has called for the Legislature to immediately convoke an extraordinary session; meanwhile, the opposition parties stated that they were fully prepared to continue fighting with the ruling KMT.

KMT caucus whip Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) stated that the extraordinary session might be scheduled to be held on Wednesday and Thursday to deal with the U.S. beef imports issue, but the session date needed to be determined during a caucus-to-caucus consultation meeting.

The Ma administration is riding a tiger with no way to dismount over the thorny issue of the U.S. beef imports. Leave aside the internal dissent within the KMT and the fact that the Presidential Office, the Executive Yuan (Cabinet) and the KMT party central all went their own way, the crucial conundrum is that it will still be very difficult for the bill related to U.S. beef imports to be passed during the extraordinary session. Furthermore, if the CAC passes an unfavorable resolution on ractopamine during its upcoming meeting, another showdown between the ruling Blue and opposition Green camps on the U.S. beef imports issue would inevitably break out.

The Presidential Office, the Cabinet, and the KMT party central, are all inclined to believe that the upcoming CAC meeting will very probably reach an unfavorable resolution on traces of ractopamine in meat products. Therefore, there was pressure to pass the amendment bill during the extraordinary session.

Moreover, if the amendment bill to the Food Safety Act fails to be passed during the extraordinary session, the Executive Yuan would have no choice but to lift the ban on imports of Paylean-treated beef products by means of an executive order. However, this would strengthen the opposition parties’ determination and will to reverse the outcome, causing another crisis.

Attachment : none