Feb 08 (focustaiwan.tw) - Taiwan will announce a series of measures Tuesday to regulate imports of food and agricultural products from areas affected by the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, in effect ending an 11-year ban that has long been criticized by Japan.
Presidential spokesman Xavier Chang (張淳涵) said the government will make adjustments to the decade-long ban but will still safeguard the health of Taiwanese by "adopting science-based border inspection measures that are stricter than current standards used by the international community," without elaborating.
More details on the proposed regulations will be announced at a press conference Tuesday to be held at the Executive Yuan, he said.
For food safety reasons, Taiwan's then-Kuomintang (KMT) government banned the imports of food and agricultural products from areas near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after several reactors melted down following a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.
The meltdowns released radioactive substances, leading to the ban covering Fukushima, Ibaraki, Gunma, Tochigi, and Chiba prefectures.
It further tightened restrictions in 2015, when products from those prefectures were discovered on store shelves in Taiwan, drawing strong criticism from the Japanese government, which had been pushing Taiwan to lift the ban.
