Central News Agency 2013-03-11 08:35 PM Taipei, March 11 (CNA) Taiwan is facing less pressure from the United States to accept pork containing the leanness-enhancing drug ractopamine than it faced on beef, a scholar said Monday. “The profits and benefits the U.S. can get from its pork exports to Taiwan are much less than those it can get from its beef,” said Roy Lee, deputy executive director of the Taiwan WTO & RTA Center under the Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research. In addition, the U.S. understands that the pork issue is much more sensitive in Taiwan than the beef issue, because of the popularity of the meat and the large number of hog farms in the country, he told CNA. Honigmann Hong, an assistant professor at Tamkang University, echoed Lee’s view, saying that the U.S. knows that agricultural issues are “very complicated.” The joint statement the two sides issued on principles for international investment and information and communication technology (ICT) services could be seen as “friendly response” because there was no mention of the pork issue, Hong said. National Taipei University economics professor Wang To-far cautioned, however, that it is just a matter of time before the U.S. puts the pork issue on the table. The U.S. will use the pork issue as a bargaining chip, just as it did with beef, Wang added. “It will depend on how strong our government’s stance is,” he said. The joint statement on investment and ICT services principles was made after talks were held Sunday between Taiwan and the U.S. under a bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), the first TIFA talks held in nearly six years. The meeting came at a time when the U.S. is seen to be pushing Taiwan to accept imports of pork containing ractopamine, but Taiwan’s government said it would maintain its ban on the veterinary drug in pork after lifting a similar ban last year on beef. The TIFA was signed in 1994 as a framework for Taiwan-U.S. dialogue on trade-related issues in the absence of diplomatic ties, but talks have been suspended since 2007, largely due to the controversy over U.S. beef imports. In early 2012 the U.S. ratcheted up pressure on Taiwan to lift its ban on ractopamine in beef. The administration of President Ma Ying-jeou relented in the middle of that year, paving the way for the resumption of the TIFA talks. (By James Lee)
