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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – Taiwanese lawmakers fought and threw pork guts on each other on Friday over a soon-to-be enacted policy that would allow imports of U.S. pork and beef.
Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang was due to deliver a regular political report to lawmakers on Friday morning on pork policy when MPs from the opposition Nationalist Party, also known as KMT, blocked his attempt to speak by throwing bags of pig organs. Lawmakers in the ruling Progressive Democratic Party tried to stop them, causing chaos and a fight with punches.
A DPP lawmaker put a KMT lawmaker to the ground in the scuffle.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s administration lifted a long-standing ban on U.S. pork and beef imports in August, in a move seen as one of the first steps towards possibly negotiating a trade deal. bilateral with the United States. The ban is expected to be lifted in January.
This decision met fierce opposition, both from the KMT and from citizens. The new policy allows imports of pork meat containing acceptable residues of ractopamine, a drug that some farmers add to animal feed that promotes the growth of lean meat.
Thousands of people marched in Taipei on Sunday to protest against imports.
American pork is said to represent only a small percentage of the island’s consumption, but the Nationalist Party has taken hold of the issue in an effort to mobilize support after successive failed ballot boxes.
“When you were in opposition you were against American pork, now that you are in power you have become a supporter of American pork,” said KMT lawmaker Lin Wei-chou, who led the group. lawmakers protesting against the policy. Friday. They wore black T-shirts that read “oppose ractopamine and pork”.
DPP lawmakers called for peace. “You blocked Premier Su from reposting in parliament 12 times,” said Hsu Sheng-chieh, MP of the PDP. “Please come to your senses.”
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