Taipei Times
Date: Feb 03, 2018
By: Staff Writer, with CNA

It has been nearly seven years since the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster, and Taiwan should lift its ban on food products from Japanese prefectures affected by the disaster based on principles of free trade and scientific data, Taiwan’s Representative to Japan Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said in an interview.

Taiwan should come up with a policy that is based on the government’s years of food product testing and that takes into consideration what many developed countries in the West are doing about the situation, Hsieh said.

Following the disaster in March 2011, Taiwan imposed a ban on food imports from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures, fearing that they could contain radioactive substances.

This action was in line with global practices at the time, as 54 countries implementing restrictions on certain Japanese goods following the meltdown, but several countries have eased bans in recent years, Hsieh said.    [FULL  STORY]