Beef dispute flare up only latest in long row (Business)

By Joseph Yeh ,The China Post, January 31, 2012, http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2012/01/31/330176/Beef-dispute.htm

The U.S. beef issue has been a source of dispute between Taipei and Washington for nearly a decade. Taiwan first banned U.S. beef in December 2003, after the latter acknowledged its first case of mad cow disease. In 2006, Taiwan opened its markets to boneless U.S. beef from cattle aged 30 months or younger.

In November 2009, the country further opened its market to U.S. bone-in beef after local officials signed a deal with American counterparts in the same year.

However, in January 2011, Taiwan found traces of locally banned feed additive ractopamine — which promotes the production of lean meat in cattle — in some U.S. beef.

Local authorities decided to remove those American beef products from sale following the discovery.

The move angered Washington, which reportedly suspended scheduled free trade talks with Taiwan, which had been set for January of the same year.

Since then, the U.S. has repeatedly urged Taiwan to accept a maximum residue limit for ractopamine instead of insisting on the zero-tolerance policy that it currently holds.

NT$3.39 Billion Trade Issue

In fact U.S. beef has never been a major part of bilateral trade.

According to Bruce Linghu, director-general of Ministry of Foreign Affairs' (MOFA) Department of North American Affairs, imports of American beef to Taiwan only stand at around 0.5 percent of total U.S. imports to the country annually.

Taiwan is U.S. beef exporters' sixth-largest market by value, worth US$114 million (NT$3.39 billion) as of October 2009, comparing to overall U.S. exports valued at US$14.5 billion for the first 10 months of that year.

Therefore, Taiwan has continued to urge Washington not to let the beef issue be an obstacle for improving bilateral trade.

However, to the American government, the relatively small amount of trade doesn't prevent them from pressing Taiwan to change its zero-tolerance policy.

The move came not only as a result of strong pressure from those U.S. states which depend mainly on agricultural business, it was also because the U.S. is afraid Taiwan's continued ban could lead other Asian countries following suit.