Taipei, Jan. 4 (CNA) In a letter to President Ma Ying-jeou, a United States senator has expressed his "strong disappointment" over Taiwan's failure to implement a U.S.-Taiwan agreement on imported U.S. bone-in beef and warned that Taiwan's credibility would suffer.
Max Baucus, chairman of the U.S. Senate's Finance Committee, said he was "frustrated" by the Legislative Yuan's plan to pass an amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation that would block the importation of certain U.S. beef products.
"It would unjustifiably bar certain U.S. beef products and would abrogate the import protocol," Baucus contended.
"There appears to be a continuation of a trend in Taiwan to obstruct U.S. agricultural imports, " he wrote, stating that this "calls into question Taiwan's credibility as a responsible trading partner." The Presidential Office responded that it would continue to work with Washington to mitigate the fallout from the dispute.
"As Taiwan-U.S. relations constitutes one of the most important parts of Taiwan's foreign relations, the government will do its best to communicate with the U.S. in order to lessen the impact, " said Presidential Office spokeman Wang Yu-chi.
Traditionally, many of Taiwan's supporters in the U.S. Congress came from agricultural states, Wang said, and he noted that the government had expected the current scenario once the legislature decided to put the amendment to a vote.
President Ma has reviewed the letter, a foreign affairs official was cited as saying.
The amendment is expected to be seen by the U.S. as a violation of the beef protocol Taiwan and the U.S. signed on Oct. 22, 2009, in which Taipei agreed to lift a ban on beef products including bone-in beef, beef offal and ground beef.
Reversing the protocol, lawmakers from Taiwan's ruling and opposition parties reached a consensus on Dec. 29 on the amendment that would ban the import of beef offal and ground beef along with other cattle parts from areas affected by mad cow disease within the previous 10 years, including the United States.
The bill will be put to a final vote on Tuesday. Baucus's letter came six days after the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) accused Taiwan of "unilaterally abrogating" the protocol, and the senator reiterated Washington's expectations.
"Taiwan's own risk assessment, the World Animal Health Organization (OIE) , and numerous other studies have concluded that all U.S. beef is safe -- including ground beef, offal, and processed products," Baucus wrote.
"It is simply unacceptable that Taiwanese authorities continue to take actions that imply otherwise. I expect Taiwan to implement the import protocol in full." The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said Baucus is a longtime friend and supporter of Taiwan and said his letter will be taken very seriously.
Taiwan's representative office in Washington will also continue to communicate with the committee chairman on the government's efforts to resolve the issue, the ministry said.
Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has blamed the diplomatic dispute on the government's mishandling of the protocol negotiations.
"We would not have been in this situation (with the U.S.) if Ma and National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi had not failed to respect public sentiment," said DPP spokesman Tsai Chi-chang.
Tsai also urged the U.S. to respect Taiwan's democratic system, calling the amendment the result of a long and thorough legislative process which reflected the will of the Taiwanese people.