Chinese Taipei - GMO Labelling
STATEMENT BY the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan,
Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu TO THE COMMITTEE ON TECHNICAL BARRIERS TO TRADE, 9-10
MARCH 2016
The following communication,
dated 7 April 2016, is being circulated at the request of the delegation of
The Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu.
_______________
1. According to Articles 22, 24 and 25 of the Act Governing Food Safety
and Sanitation, prepackaged food, food additives, and unpackaged food shall
indicate genetically modified food raw materials in Chinese. The Ministry of
Health and Welfare (MOHW) therefore have to modify the labeling regulations for
food containing GMOs. Additionally, the food safety authority has to offer
people safe and healthy food, satisfy people's right to know, and follow the
EU's labelling regulations for GM products.
2. The MOHW has held technical experts meetings to discuss the
collecting comments and has fully communicated with the different stakeholders.
According to meetings' conclusions, the MOHW announced "Labeling
requirements for prepackaged food, food additives and unpackaged food
containing ingredients of genetically modified organisms" on 29 May 2015,
and have already notified WTO Members. The labelling threshold is maintained at
3%. For the GMO requirements for prepackaged food and food additives, the
implementation date will be Dec 31, 2015.
3. Different countries developed their own labelling threshold of GMO
content. Compared with New Zealand and Australia's 1%, the EU's 0.9%, and
China's zero tolerance, the MOHW's 3% is not harsh. In addition, for highly
refined foods, we only request that foods that are "directly"
manufactured using GMOs, yet for which the final product does not contain
transgenic DNA fragments or transgenic proteins, such as soybean oil, soy
sauce, corn oil, corn starch, corn syrup, cottonseed oil, canola oil, to be
labelled, which is not as stringent as the EU or China.
4. In order to avoid consumers' misunderstanding that there is a
genetically modified equivalent of each food material, the MOHW has to limit
the scope of labelling non-GMOs.
5. Genetically modified food raw materials are allowed to be imported
to Chinese Taipei, if the genetically modified food raw materials are reviewed
by the central competent authority in health risk assessment, filing product
registration and procuring a permit document. In order to provide clear
information to consumers and respect the consumer's right of knowledge, we have
to improve labelling regulations.
6. According to "Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation"
Article 30, application for inspection with the central competent authority and
declaration of the relevant information of the product are required and shall
be in accordance with the customs commodity code and classification when
importing foods, genetically modified food raw materials, food additives, food
utensils, food containers or packaging and food cleansers designated by the
central competent authority in a public announcement. The CCC code of genetically
modified (GM) food raw materials can be inquired of website
7. According to "Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation"
Article 32, in order to investigate and prevent food sanitation and safety
incidents, the competent authority may require food businesses, non-food
businesses or their representative to provide relevant records, documents and
electronic files or databases of the imported products when necessary. In this
case, the food businesses, the non-food businesses, or their representatives
shall not evade, impede or refuse such requests. The food businesses shall
retain the related records, documents, electronic files, or database of
imported products and genetically modified food raw materials mentioned in the
preceding paragraph for five years.
8. According to the announcement "Food Businesses Shall Establish
Traceability System of Food Products, food importers of genetically modified (GM)
food raw materials applying for business registration, company registration or
factory registration shall establish their own traceability system of food
product since 5 February 2015, and shall upload traceability information of
last month to the website (http://ftracebook.fda.gov.tw)
before 10th of each month since 1 January 2016. Finally, the food importers
shall use electric uniform invoices if they have to use uniform invoices
referred to "Value-added and Non-value-added Business Tax Act" on
January 1, 2017.
9. For the purpose of strengthening food chain management, MOHW announces
"Draft of Food Businesses Shall Establish Traceability System of Food
Products, and is in the progress of notifying the WTO Members
(G/TBT/N/TPKM/207). During the comment period, there are no recommendations or
responses about the draft regulation from WTO Members. Therefore, MHOW
announces the "Food Businesses Shall Establish Traceability System of Food
Products after integrating opinions from domestic food industry, and have
informed the WTO/TBT simultaneously (G/TBT/N/TPKM/207/Add.1).
__________