Taipei Times
Date: Dec 01, 2018
By: Staff writer, with CNA

A Taiwanese official based at the WTO yesterday said that scientific evidence is the key to resolving the issue of Taiwan’s ban on imports of some Japanese food, a matter that Tokyo is considering taking to the world trade body for arbitration.

The official, who declined to be named, said the ban on imports from Fukushima, Ibaraki, Gunma, Tochigi and Chiba prefectures since the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant meltdown in 2011 was instituted due to concerns about food safety.

However, the issue has been politicized in the wake of a Nov. 24 referendum in which 78 percent of votes cast were in support of maintaining the ban, he said.

Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Kono on Thursday said that his country would not rule out the possibility of initiating dispute settlement proceedings at the WTO over the case.    [FULL  STORY]