The United States Trade Representative (USTR) on Monday expressed concern about Taiwan’s agricultural policies that are “not based on science”. The USTR cited these concerns in its 2021 Trade Policy Agenda and 2020 Annual Report.
The US stated that its priority is for Taiwan to remove barriers to the imports of US beef and pork products. Other areas of concern include Taiwan’s rice procurement system, regulatory procedure for setting maximum residue value on pesticides and market access barriers for US agricultural biotechnology products.
The report did not acknowledge the step that Taiwan took in lifting a ban on the leanness enhancing additive ractopamine in US pork. Beginning January 1, Taiwan began to allow US pork imports with a maximum residue level (MRL) of ractopamine based on the standards set by the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Taiwan also removed the ban on US beef imports from cattle aged over 30 months.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s lifting of the former ban has been seen as a goodwill gesture to the US and was met with much opposition domestically.