Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-hsiang eliminated the possibility that the United States will re-consider its beef protocol with Taiwan.

While talking to reporter, the minister said, “The only possibility for the two parties to discuss the matter will be through consultations based on the content of the protocol signed last October.”

The governing body has passed an amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation January 5 that bans imports of specific beef products from countries with documented cases of mad cow disease in the past years.

United States ground beef, beef offal and other beef parts like skulls, eyes and intestines are banned from entering the Taiwanese market according to the new law, in direct contravention of the protocol.

Meanwhile, talking to media, Vice Economics Minister Lin Sheng-chung said, “The recently approved amendment to the food and sanitation law will have little impact on U. S. interests in terms of foreign trade, as bone-in beef accounts for 98 percent of U. S. beef exports, while ground beef and offal represents an insignificant portion.”

Further, he said, “Since the U. S.-Taiwan beef protocol is non-reversible; Taiwan is obliged to follow the content to allow imports of bone-in beef.”