1217 Amendment Imposes Heavier Penalties"To prevent African swine fever, bringing meat products back to Taiwan will draw a fine raised to 200,000 for a first offense, and a heavy fine of 1 million for a second offense!
In the battle against African swine fever to date, although the government has amended the law to raise the penalties for illegally bringing in meat products, travelers continue to bring meat products from China or other areas into Taiwan. The Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine under the Council of Agriculture announced today that fines will be raised across the board: for bringing meat products back to Taiwan from countries where African swine fever has occurred in the past three years, a first violation will draw a fine of 200,000, a second will draw a heavy fine of 1 million, and a third will draw another 1 million, and so on, effective immediately.
41 cases accumulated from the 14th to now, with mainland Chinese spouses and Vietnamese spouses making up the majority
According to Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine statistics, from midnight on the 14th to the 16th, a total of 41 cases of illegally bringing in meat products were seized, of which 15 were fined 50,000, 24 were fined 30,000, and 2 were fined 10,000.
Huang Chin-cheng, deputy chairman of the Council of Agriculture, said that at present most violators are mainland Chinese spouses and Vietnamese spouses, who account for the largest numbers. A social association system has now been launched to start outreach from the family level, urging people not to bring meat products in when returning home.
In addition, announcements on planes are currently only in Mandarin or English. Huang Chin-cheng said that in the future announcements on planes will be made in Vietnamese or other Southeast Asian languages, so that foreign spouses fully understand that they cannot illegally bring meat products back to Taiwan.
For bringing meat products back from countries where African swine fever has occurred in the past three years, the first offense draws a 200,000 fine
The Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine stressed again that whether or not it is an African swine fever epidemic area or a country where it has occurred in the past three years, bringing meat products back from overseas is basically a violation, unless a quarantine certificate issued by the exporting country's quarantine authority can be provided. But ordinary travelers bringing back local meat products cannot obtain such documents, so bringing them in is illegal.
If meat products are brought back by accident, as long as they are declared at the counter upon entry and confiscated and destroyed by staff, there will be no penalty. If they are seized without declaration, fines will be imposed according to the circumstances of the violation. For undeclared meat products, if they come from a country where African swine fever has occurred in the past three years, such as China, the first offense starts at a 200,000 fine, and the second reaches 1 million.
If it is not a country where African swine fever has occurred in the past three years, the fine is the same as before, starting at 10,000 for failure to declare, but if it is an area affected by foot-and-mouth disease or avian influenza (such as Southeast Asia or South Korea), the fine is 30,000.
What to do if meat products are stuffed into online purchases from China? Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine: report it and you will not be fined
Many netizens are concerned that when buying things on online shopping platforms in China, meat sausage is stuffed into the box and shipped to Taiwan, and a parcel at the Kinmen animal hospital also unexpectedly contained an extra piece of meat sausage. Will innocent buyers be penalized because of this? Huang Chin-cheng said that if this happens, people can quickly report it to the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine for collection and will not be fined. Huang Chin-cheng urged that people must absolutely not just throw it into kitchen waste, as this could cause an accidental spread of the epidemic, and must report it to the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine.
Huang Chin-cheng said that inspections will also be strengthened for unknown meat products placed in online shopping boxes. The Council of Agriculture will conduct on-site testing to see whether this method of shipping is hard for X-ray machines to detect, or hard for quarantine dogs to smell out. If this is the case, the quarantine model will be revised and strengthened.
In addition, because Premier Lai Ching-te will go to the airport customs to personally understand the epidemic prevention process, the originally planned epidemic prevention drill will be postponed to the 26th.