Chefs showcasing their skills during the ongoing 2009 Taipei International Beef Noodle Festival yesterday offer their support for the city's decision to boycott US beef products that are considered health risks, by wearing badges with words to that effect printed on them. CNA

TAIPEI: The Department of Health (DOH) formally posted notification Monday of its amended regulations on US beef imports. The new regulations officially lifted the ban on US bone-in beef, ground beef and beef offal under 30 months of age, but it adopted other measures that will effectively bar the entry of some of those products.

Taiwan will not import controversial US ground beef and beef offal, Department of Health chief Yaung Chih-liang said Monday, even though they were to be allowed entry under a recent protocol signed by Taiwan and the United States on imports of US beef and beef products.

Yaung said measures will be taken to block the controversial products from entering Taiwan in three different places - at the source, at the border and in markets.

He stressed that in the latest market opening, Taiwan "allows the imports of beef and relevant products only from cattle younger than 30 months, while banning the import of tonsil and the final section of ileum that are listed as 'specific risk materials.'"

The government will also use its administrative power to block four controversial "non-specific risk materials" - beef brains, spinal cords, eyes and skull - from entering Taiwan's market, Yaung noted.

He stressed the government will strictly follow the principle of pursuing and ensuring the safety of imported US beef, which has sparked concern among local consumers after the protocol was signed no October 23.

The amended regulations also authorize the government to ask the US side to stop exporting beef products to Taiwan that twice fail to meet Taiwan's import standards.

The accompanying management measures on imported beef quarantine and inspection will close Taiwan's markets to beef products that were permitted in a controversial protocol on the issue signed by Taiwan and the United States.

Under these new measures, frozen ground beef and offal imported from the US would have to be defrosted upon their arrival, effectively serving as a way to block the controversial meat products without violating the protocol.

The measures also address another quality control issue to obstruct ground beef imports.

"As the US Department of Agriculture does not issue quality system assessment (QSA) certificates for ground beef, Taiwan's trade authorities will not issue import permits for the product," the measures stipulate.

Washington on Monday welcomed Taiwan's decision to give greater access to US beef imports after they were banned in 2003 due to concerns over mad cow disease.

"The United States has been looking forward to an announcement from Taiwan authorities that Taiwan would fully open its market to American beef and beef products on the basis of the bilateral protocol we have negotiated," the Department of Agriculture and the US Trade Representative's office said in a joint statement.

China Daily/Agencies

(HK Edition 11/04/2009 page2)