Roberts meets with Taiwan delegation on beef imports

Kansas

U.S. Senator Pat Roberts recently met with a group of Taiwanese legislators to discuss resuming beef trade of U.S. bone-in-beef products.

"I had a productive discussion with the members of the Taiwanese delegation," Roberts said. "I thanked them for leading by example in Asia with their decision to resume trade in boneless beef in January. I reiterated the need to base further trade decisions on sound science which has proven U.S. beef to be safe. I pressed the Taiwanese legislators to lift the remaining ban U.S. beef products."

At issue is continued delay of allowing U.S. bone-in-beef, offals and processed products into Taiwanese markets after the discovery of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in America last year. In January of 2006, Taiwan renewed trade of boneless beef.

Decisions to open the remaining markets to U.S. beef have been hampered by a politically charged climate in Taiwan.

As part of the decision making process in assessing the safety of U.S. beef, Taiwan's Department of Health auditors conducted their own audit of the U.S. inspection system and found no problems with America's safeguards against BSE.

The legislators were on a fact finding trip to better understand these evaluations.

Last month, Roberts and Sen. Kent Conrad, D-ND, introduced legislation to impose tariffs on Japanese products if a date is not set to reopen the Japanese market to U.S. beef.

Roberts is a senior member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture Nutrition and Forestry.

Date: 7/27/06

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