Is the Import of Food from Radiation-Contaminated Areas Also a Taiwan Value?

 Is the Import of Food from Radiation-Contaminated Areas Also a Taiwan Value?

United Daily News Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

January 31, 2018

 Translation of an Excerpt

After the word has been released by the government several times, Minister Chen Shih-chung of the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW) officially stated at a New Year’s press conference that the MHW was planning to lift the ban on food imports from Fukushima and four other radiation-contaminated prefectures in Japan. Chen said that in the future Taiwan would refer to "US standards," replacing “restrictions by areas” with "restrictions by risks," lifting the ban on imports from the five prefectures in Japan; however, once it was ascertained that the food was radiation-contaminated, it would absolutely not enter Taiwan. The rhetoric was beautiful, but we want to ask: Does the import of food from radiation-contaminated areas conform to President Tsai's "Taiwan values"?

The Tsai government wants to allow the import of food from radiation-contaminated areas in Japan; rather than implicating and entangling so-called US standards, it would be better to ask ourselves on the basis of what values was the policy made. The Ma government, in its era, did not allow food imports from five radiation-contaminated areas in Japan; however, there were firms that imported some food from radiation-contaminated areas by faking certificates of origin, and the DPP then lambasted this as "premeditated homicide through collusion between government officials and businessmen." Then Foreign Minister David Lin said that our country would follow in the footsteps of various countries in the direction of lifting the ban; Green legislators at the time furiously bombarded him, saying that he turned a deaf ear to food safety by stressing the supremacy of diplomacy. Another legislator criticized the Japanese for wanting to export to Taiwan toxic foodstuff that they, themselves, did not dare to eat.

This time, the MHW even raised a banner, claiming that "Taiwan must enter the world," seeking to accede to the Japan-led CPTPP; therefore, we had to take this step to open our markets to food from radiation-contaminated areas. It is bewildering that the phrase "entering the world" should be uttered by an MHW minister. Chen Shih-chung apparently forgot his duty was to safeguard the people’s health, yet he stumped for the import of radiation-contaminated food from Japan; Chen, we are afraid, kicked the ball into wrong goal. Let’s take a further step by asking: If opening our markets to food from radiation-contaminated areas in Japan means Taiwan would immediately be allowed to accede to CPTPP, has Japan made any concrete pledges? If not, Taiwan’s public pays a price with their health, what in the world have they gotten in exchange? May we ask President Tsai to plainly explain?

Whether or not to lift the ban on imports of Japanese food from radiation-contaminated areas, there is, in fact, no need to talk about the US standards. All we need to ask is what are the DPP’s standards? Banning nuclear power but importing radiation-contaminated food, could it be called Tsai Ing-wen's "Taiwan values"? All the people want to know.

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