Typhoon Tali brings heavy rains, Legislative Yuan session postponed

Typhoon Tali is expected to pass through the Taiwan Strait, which may cause heavy rains across Taiwan. The Central Disaster Response Center was activated yesterday. Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng also announced today, the 19th, that the ruling and opposition parties have reached a consensus in negotiations to give priority to disaster prevention and postpone the talks and extraordinary meetings originally scheduled for the 20th.

Typhoon Tali is expected to bring heavy rains to the entire island of Taiwan. Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng announced that disaster prevention will be given priority and the extraordinary session originally scheduled for the 20th will be postponed. (Photo taken from the Central Weather Bureau website)

The Legislative Yuan had originally planned to hold an extraordinary session tomorrow to deal with the draft amendment to some articles of the Food Sanitation Management Act related to the opening of American beef with ractopamine. However, Speaker Wang Jinping said that in order to cope with the heavy rain disasters that may be brought about by the two Taiwan Straits, it has been decided to postpone tomorrow's talk show and extraordinary session. As for when to resume, the government and opposition parties will be invited to negotiate and discuss at an appropriate time, but it will not be postponed indefinitely.

The US beef bill was originally scheduled to be decided in the last week of the Legislative Yuan's current session, but due to the heavy rains brought by the plum rain season and the opposition party's occupation of the podium, the proceedings were unable to proceed smoothly. The ruling party originally hoped to convene an extraordinary meeting as soon as possible to complete the amendment to the US beef bill, but was forced to postpone it due to the typhoon that hit Taiwan.

The Central Disaster Response Center pointed out that last week's heavy rains have saturated the soil moisture in the mountainous areas of central and southern Taiwan. In addition, it is estimated that Typhoon Tali and the southwest airflow will bring heavy rainfall to the entire island of Taiwan. The center called on the public to be more prepared for typhoons and cooperate with the government's various preventive evacuation and control measures to reduce disaster losses.