July 8, 2011
Taiwan is expected to continue barring the import of meats containing leanness drugs, including US beef.
The development follows the failure of the Codex Alimentarius Commission to agree on the allowable amounts of residue from such drugs at a Wednesday (Jul 6) meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. The commission is a regulatory body of the United Nations.
The Council of Agriculture had said before that once Codex sets out the maximum permitted amounts of leanness enhancing drugs, Taiwan will use their regulations as a reference to re-consider its own ban.
In January, Taiwan detected small amounts of a leanness drug in beef imported from the US. The discovery raised public concerns in Taiwan, even though US allows the use of the drug, which is commercially known as Paylean.
Paylean contains ractopamine, one of four drugs along with salbutamol, terbutaline and clenbuterol, which are banned in Taiwan.
Because of the differing regulations between the two sides, talks between Taiwan and the US under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement have stalled since they were suspended in 2007 over Taiwan's ban on US bone-in beef imports.