The Kuomintang (KMT) held a press conference on August 26 to appeal to the authorities to suspend pork imports due to the rampant inspection breaches of products infected with the African swine virus and pork containing ractopamine residue, commonly dubbed “ractopork” in Taiwan.
The KMT criticized that the Customs Administration under Premier Su Tseng-chang failed to implement 100% secure inspections, resulting in a recent surge in smuggling of African swine fever infected pork products, on top of the Tsai administration’s controversial decision to lift the ban on pork imports containing the feed additive ractopamine nearly nine months ago.
According to national polls conducted in July, 60.3 percent of respondents think that imports of ractopork should be suspended until the referendum on the issue is held in December, while only 23.3 percent disagree. The recent spat of the smuggling of African swine fever-infected pork products has only increased such sentiments.
Furthermore, Premier Su Tseng-chang made a commitment in 2019 to earmark NT$320 million for more inspection manpower and technologies so as to inspect 100% of baggage from high-risk areas , but the actual sampling rate is only 2%. This shows that the government’s border inspection capacity is extremely insufficient, and the manpower is probably not in place. The fact that Premier Su showed up at the airport to inspect the air parcel X-ray machines can hardly solve all problems.
Hence, on August 28, Chairman Johnny Chiang of the KMT held an outdoor press conference to call on all people to vote in the December 18 referendum against the importation of ractopork to defend their own rights in the face of the government’s poor decisions.
