beyondbrics

It is less than a month since Taiwan’s president Ma Ying-jeou won his re-election and still three months before his second term officially begins, but Ma already faces a major political challenge.

Surprisingly – even though Taiwan slipped into recession at the end of last year – the problem is not the economy. Nor is it controversy over Ma’s new cabinet. Instead, it is the tricky issue of whether Taiwan should further open itself to imports of US beef.

If this issue sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Ma suffered a big political setback over the very same issue in 2010. Ma had agreed to allow offal and ground beef from the US into Taiwan, already the sixth biggest importer of US beef in the world.

The move provoked a public backlash as the opposition Democratic Progressive Party played up health and safety concerns to great effect. Even though Ma’s Kuomintang party dominated parliament, legislators voted to reverse the deal – a move that ended up putting other US-Taiwan trade talks on hold.

Now the issue has resurfaced. In a meeting with Raymond Burghardt, the US’s representative on the island, Ma said “new [cabinet] members will employ a new approach to tackle the thorny beef issue”. The government said a cabinet-level task force would be set up to consider relaxing some import restrictions, particularly those concerning beef containing ractopamine, a leanness-enhancing drug.

Burghardt told Taiwanese media that expanding US beef imports would be key to resuming other trade talks.

Again, the DPP is opposing the move. But this time, its members are focusing not on health and safety but on suspicions of political quid pro quo. Annette Lu, a former DPP vice-president, said there was a clear link between the administration revisiting this issue so soon after the election and the fact that the US supported Ma during the campaign.

The US insists it supports Taiwanese democracy and does not favour any candidate over another. But last September a US official expressed doubts over opposition candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s ability to maintain cross-Strait stability. Shortly before the election, the US said Taiwan would join a short-list for its citizens to enjoy visa-free entry into the US. In December, Daniel Poneman, US deputy secretary of energy, became the first high-ranking US official to visit the island in more than a decade.

The Ma administration strongly rejects any suggestions of a political deal. “The president briefly mentioned the US beef issue while elaborating on Taiwan-US relations but he never made any promises,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

After his electoral victory, Ma promised “drastic, wide-ranging reforms”, and said he wanted to position Taiwan to join the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership within the next decade. The US beef issue will be a key first test of how far he is able and willing to go to achieve those goals in his second term.

Related reading:
Post-election Taiwan: beyond exports, beyondbrics
Challenges for Taiwan’s growth tzar, beyondbrics
Ma’s victory: plenty of work ahead, beyondbrics
Video: China looms over Taiwan poll, FT Video