TAIPEI: The controversy over the government's relaxation of restrictions on US beef imports is heating up again, as Kuomintang (KMT) legislator Lu Hsueh-chang vowed Wednesday to sue a student who publicized the cellphone numbers of KMT lawmakers so that people could call them to complain about the issue.

The student, Chu Cheng-chi of National Taiwan University, was seeking sponsorship Wednesday for a billboard that would display the phone numbers of several KMT lawmakers, including Lu's.

Chu had earlier in the week displayed a poster with the phone numbers of some KMT lawmakers, and urged the public to call them to protest the wider opening of the Taiwan market to US beef products.

His action came in response to a proposed amendment to the Food Sanitation Act to clear the way for less stringent checks on US beef imports.

However, KMT legislator Kung Wen-chi, who had sponsored the proposed amendment, withdrew his version on Wednesday.

Nonetheless, Chu went ahead with his plans to erect the billboard, but said he was pleased to hear that Kung had dropped the proposal.

The student expressed the hope that KMT lawmakers would introduce a bill that would strictly prohibit imports of "risky" beef products.

In response, Lu said that Chu is an opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) worker and an editor of a pro-DPP magazine, and that his actions were a means of gaining publicity with the intention of running for political office in the future.

Lu vowed to take legal action against Chu for infringement of portrait rights and disclosure of personal information.

Meanwhile, at a press conference Wednesday, the KMT legislative caucus accused the DPP of having stalled legislative meetings for one month over the controversy for political expediency.

Lu said that the KMT caucus has decided to adopt a version of the Food Sanitation Act amendment proposed by KMT legislator Huang Yi-chiao, with some revisions.

Huang's version of the amendment states that the government would ban the importation of skulls, brains, eyes, spinal cords, bovine organs as well as ground beef from cattle raised in areas and countries where bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, outbreaks have occurred.

Those who illegally bring in beef from cattle that have been contaminated with "specific risk materials (SRMs)" related to BSE will be fined between NT$3 million and NT$15 million, the proposed bill states.

SRMs are defined in the US-Taiwan beef protocol as brains, skulls, eyes, trigeminal ganglia, spinal cords, vertebral columns and dorsal root ganglia from cattle 30 months and older, or tonsils and the distal ileum of the small intestine from cattle of all ages.

However, DPP lawmakers have been pushing for a reopening of negotiations with the United States and a ban on the controversial beef parts, through legislation. It said administrative checks and measures are not enough to fully protect the health of the public.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 12/11/2009 page2)