20120312 EDITORIAL: Speak the truth on US beef imports

EDITORIAL: Speak the truth on US beef imports

The government’s plan to conditionally lift an import ban on US beef containing ractopamine residue has drawn harsh criticism from farmers and opposition parties, who accuse the government of endangering public health with the policy.

The Executive Yuan and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators, on the other hand, have sought to defend the plan by saying there is no scientific evidence that the feed additive is harmful. Even American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director William Stanton came forward and said that the US considered ractopamine to be a safe feed additive, denying bullying Taiwan on the issue.

Amid the ongoing debate, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been awfully quiet since the Executive Yuan announced last Monday that the government was considering lifting the ban; he did not comment on the issue until Wednesday, in a closed-door weekly meeting of the KMT Central Standing Committee, when he said no document or evidence has proven that the feed additive is harmful to humans.

Lifting the ban on the import of US beef products with ractopamine residue would be a major decision, involving public health and trade relations with the US. However, the government ambushed the public by announcing the policy late on Monday via a press release. Ma, who had repeatedly stressed his administration’s neutral stance on the issue, has yet to face the nation and offer an explanation.

Concealing the decision-making process and related information creates distrust between the government and the public, and the Ma administration’s evasive attitude and attempts to fool the public into believing that the US beef imports issue had nothing to do with trade pacts and overall US-Taiwan relations have been truly disturbing.

Ma and his administration tried to focus the debate on the leanness-inducing additive on the scientific question of whether it poses a health risk. However, the tensions between the US and Taiwan over the issue are more about trade.

In his meeting with AIT Chairman Raymond Burghardt last month, Ma said that the beef imports issue has hampered trade talks over the signing of a trade and investment framework agreement (TIFA) between the two sides, while promising that the new Cabinet would adopt a fresh approach to the issue.

It is no secret that both the US and Taiwan want to proceed with TIFA talks, which have been suspended since 2007 mainly because of the controversy over beef imports, and Taiwan is also seeking to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership. There can be no real progress until the beef issue is settled.

The last-minute postponement of a visit by US Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade Francisco Sanchez earlier this month was also apparently linked to Taipei’s restriction on the import of US beef. Four days after the cancellation of his trip to Taipei, the Cabinet announced that the government was leaning toward lifting the ban on US beef imports.

The Ma administration is obviously under pressure from the US to address the beef imports issue, and Ma’s previous claim that his administration has no timetable or predetermined stance was a clumsy lie that fools no one.

It is time for Ma to pluck up the courage to tell the truth. He owes the public an explanation of negotiations between Taiwan and the US on the beef imports issue.

The public also deserves to know what Taiwan expects to get in return from the US after allowing the beef imports and whether those deals — be they on TIFA, the US visa-waiver program or US arms sales to Taiwan — offer advantages that are worth risking people’s health.