New regulations for Japanese products exported to Taiwan, China: all must be accompanied by a certificate of origin, and some require radiation testing
Japanese food products from five prefectures banned from import into Taiwan were suspected last month of entering Taiwan with "relabeled" origin, last month the Legislative Yuan passed a temporary proposal by Legislator Lin Shu-fen, and at that time Jiang Yu-mei, Director-General of the Food and Drug Administration under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, promised that within two weeks it would announce that Japanese products imported into Taiwan must have an "official certificate of origin" and a "radiation inspection certificate," but 19 days passed, and only today (the 13th) was it sent to the Executive Yuan Gazette editing and printing center for publication in the gazette.
Bai Mei-juan, a technical specialist of the Food Division of the FDA under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said that because some administrative procedures needed to be handled, the formal announcement is expected on April 15, with implementation on May 15; apart from the five prefectures still banned from importing into Taiwan, which remain unopened, products from other regions must be accompanied by a certificate of origin, and some products must be accompanied by a radiation inspection certificate.
Today the FDA formulated two announcements, "Food imported from Japan must be accompanied by official certificate of origin documents before an application for imported food inspection may be filed," and "Specific foods imported from Japan must be accompanied by radiation test certificates before an application for imported food inspection may be filed," and sent them to the Executive Yuan Gazette editing and printing center for publication in the gazette.
Bai Mei-juan said that afterward it will continue to communicate with the Japanese side, publish the sample format of the formal certification documents that must be attached on the FDA website, and require manufacturers to implement it.
After the "official certificate of origin" announcement is formally implemented, apart from products from the five prefectures banned from import into Taiwan (Fukushima, Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki and Chiba), which remain prohibited from import, products from other regions of Japan all need to be accompanied by a certificate of origin for import. This includes certificates of origin issued by Japanese authorities, documents certifying origin issued by Japanese authorities or their authorized institutions, or certificate of origin documents recognized by the FDA; the place of origin must be stated down to the metropolis, prefecture, or prefecture-level designation.
As for the "radiation test certificate," not all products need to be accompanied by one. Bai Mei-juan said that based on the radiation test results of more than 60,000 product items in border inspections from 2011 to the present, aquatic products and tea have relatively higher radiation levels, and to protect dairy products, infant foods, candies, biscuits and cereal preparations, which infants and young children frequently consume, a total of 7 items, only specific foods from specific regions need to be accompanied by a radiation test certificate; the relevant content is subject to the formally issued announcement.
In addition, for products from outside the five prefectures, that is, the 9 major categories of products (fresh refrigerated fruits and vegetables, frozen fruits and vegetables, live fresh refrigerated aquatic products, frozen aquatic products, dairy products, infant foods, mineral water or drinking water, seaweed products and tea products), before the formal announcement, batch-by-batch radiation level inspection is still maintained.
The FDA stressed that if border inspection finds that imported food has been falsely declared, the operator is involved in violating Article 30, Paragraph 1 of the "Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation," and may be fined under Article 47, Subparagraph 1 and Subparagraph 13 of the same Act a fine of no less than NT$30,000 and no more than NT$3 million; if the place of origin is falsely reported and products from the five prefectures whose import is suspended are illegally imported, this involves violating Article 15 of the same Act and may be handled in accordance with the relevant provisions violated.