The Presidential Office has confirmed that President Tsai Ing-wen discussed Japan’s food safety control measures with former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in late January. The news on Thursday comes days after Taiwan decided to lift a decade-long ban on food imports from five prefectures in Japan affected by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Presidential Office spokesperson Xavier Chang says Tsai and Abe also talked about Taiwan’s possible entry into the CPTPP, a large international free trade area. Japan is a member of the CPTPP.
With news of the phone call and the positive response from Abe, Premier Su Tseng-chang said on Friday that Taiwan’s government has done the right thing by lifting the ban.
In response to the lifting of the ban, opposition lawmakers have raised questions over the capacity of Taiwan’s food inspection facilities. Premier Su has responded by saying that the government is working in accordance with scientific evidence, and has sufficient inspection capacity.
Su says Taiwan has seven radiation testing laboratories. He says altogether they conduct inspections on 7 million items a year. Su says all the laboratories have dual certification and meet international standards. He says the laboratories carry out inspections on 20,000 items imported from Japan every year.