Economics Minister John Deng has said that U.S. beef byproducts will only be allowed into Taiwan after risk assessment shows that they bear no health risks.
Taiwan currently bans the import of US beef organs. But six categories of US beef byproducts, including bone marrow, blood vessels, head meat, and cheeks, trachea, and tallow, are allowed into Taiwan.
The local media have been speculating that the government is allowing the import of these beef byproducts in exchange for US support for Taiwan’s bid to join the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
But Minister Deng said Monday that’s not true. He said that the government will not be pressured into allowing those beef byproducts into Taiwan.
“We will conduct a risk assessment on those products. International health organizations have classified those products as [having ‘negligible risk’]," said Deng. "Since we have some doubts about them, we are still going to conduct a risk assessment, and only allow them into Taiwan if the results show that they bear no health risk.”
Deng said that according to the World Organization for Animal Health, Australian beef and US beef bear the same level of risk. So Taiwan should deal with the beef import from those two countries in the same way.
The agriculture council banned the import of beef products from the United States in 2003 due to a case of mad cow disease. The ban was partially lifted in 2006 to allow imports of deboned beef from cattle under 30 months old.