Executive Yuan: No executive order considered as US beef dispute remains unresolved

After days of standoff between ruling and opposition parties over whether to allow American beef containing ractopamine to be allowed, the Democratic Progressive Party completely occupied the podium and was unable to complete the review of the "Draft Amendment to the Food Sanitation Management Act", causing the controversy over American beef to continue to be delayed. In response, the Executive Yuan, which advocates opening up imports of U.S. beef, emphasized that it respects the position of the Legislative Yuan, but will never consider issuing an executive order.

The ruling and opposition party groups in the Legislative Yuan were unable to reach a consensus on opening up American beef to the content of ractopamine. The Executive Yuan expressed its respect and stressed that it would not issue an executive order for the time being. (Photography by Luo Huiwen)

The Executive Yuan stated that the Esophageal Act could not be amended due to obstruction by opposition legislators and the recess of the Legislative Yuan, resulting in the U.S. beef import case remaining unresolved. Although it regrets this result, it still respects the Legislative Yuan's decision.

As for whether to directly open up American beef with ractopamine by administrative order in accordance with the legislative authorization model, Executive Yuan spokesman Hu Youwei emphasized that the Executive Yuan will not issue an administrative order before the legislative process of the Food Sanitation Management Act is exhausted and before the Legislative Yuan holds an extraordinary session.

In addition, in order to bring the controversy over American beef to a close as soon as possible, the KMT caucus announced that it would propose to convene an extraordinary session of the Legislative Yuan on the 18th.