US Bone-in Beef May Arrive in Taiwan Next Week

TAIWAN - The first batch of US bone-in beef is likely to arrive in Taiwan within one week after the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) issued Quality System Assessment (QSA) certifications to qualified suppliers, an official said earlier this week.
calendar icon 10 November 2009
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The new QSA regulations stipulate that both boneless and bone-in beef from cattle less than 30 months of age slaughtered after November 2 can be exported to Taiwan, while only boneless beef from cattle slaughtered before that date can be sold to Taiwan.

With QSA certifications, US bone-in beef will be subjected to that same inspection and quarantine procedures as those applied to boneless beef once arriving in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) official told Taiwan News.

"As ocean shipments from the United States to Taiwan takes seven to 10 days, the first batch of US bone-in beef will be able to enter Taiwan's market after November 17 at the earliest, " the official added.

The guidelines for the regulations were established in a protocol on US beef imports signed by Taipei and Washington on October 23, but the QSA stipulations and the age of the cattle from which exported beef can be obtained were more clearly addressed in the USDA's detailed document issued November 9.

While the protocol did not specify that beef and beef products must be from cattle of any particular age, the new regulations state that only deboned and bone-in beef products from cattle "less than 30 months of age" will be shipped "as a temporary market transition measure." The protocol also gives market access to US ground beef and beef offal, but the MOEA official said the possibility of the USDA issuing QSA certifications for these products is remote.

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