Focus Taiwan
Date: 09/11/2020
By: Liu Kuan-ting and William Yen

Taipei, Sept. 11 (CNA) The opposition Kuomintang (KMT) will expand its petition drive to across Taiwan this weekend as it takes a first step toward holding a referendum to oppose the government's decision to allow imports of American pork containing a banned veterinary drug.

The petition follows a decision announced by President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Aug. 28 to set standards for residues of the veterinary drug ractopamine in imported pork and to allow imports of U.S. beef from cattle over 30 months old, starting Jan. 1, 2021.

The announcement was controversial because questions over the safety of meat containing ractopamine, which is still banned in Taiwan, have never been resolved.

It was also a policy reversal for Tsai's Democratic Progressive Party, which called meat containing ractopamine "toxic" when it was an opposition party and had insisted on "zero-tolerance" for the controversial drug in imported pork until Tsai's announcement.
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