Taipei, Jan. 25 (CNA) The atmosphere is not good for the United States (U.S.) and Taiwan to resume talks on further trade liberalization, in light of Taiwan's removal of U.S. beef from supermarket shelves because of a banned drug, a U.S. official said Tuesday.
"Press conferences about ractopamine...ordering the removal of beef from supermarkets live on national television and creating a public misperception that there is a risk to public health, when in fact these products are safe and consumed around the world every day, is not what I would call a good atmosphere, " Raymond Burghardt, Chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said at a media roundtable.
The diplomat was commenting on the postponement of a new round of talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) , which Taiwanese officials had said would be held in the last week of January.
The TIFA is an official framework for Taiwan-U.S. dialogue on trade and economic issues in the absence of diplomatic ties. TIFA talks have been suspended since 2007 mainly because of a controversy over beef imports from the U.S.
The U.S. decided to postpone the talks further when Taiwan blocked some shipments of U.S. beef last week after it was found that they contained residues of ractopamine, an animal feed additive that promotes leanness.
Taiwan regulations do not allow for any residues of ractopamine in meat.
Burghardt reiterated that Taiwan had considered lifting the ractopamine ban in 2007 after its own scientific research assessed that the use of the additive was safe. Taiwan even notified the World Trade Organization (WTO) of its plan and stated an actual number for its planned maximum residue level (MRL), he said.
But massive protests from local pig farmers changed everything, and the proposal by the Department of Health (DOH) and the Council of Agriculture (COA) was never implemented, he noted.
"There is a distinction between how imported products and domestic products are handled," he said.
On TIFA talks, Burghardt said it was Taiwan officials who unilaterally made the announcement that the TIFA meeting would be held in January.
The U.S. "never announced when to hold the TIFA Joint Council" but intended to engage in exchanges with Taiwan on various trade issues.
He did not offer an opinion on when the TIFA talks might commence.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) also said Tuesday it does not believe that "the current environment is conducive to holding productive high-level discussions, " in an email received by CNA. (By Chris Wang) enditem /pc