Food-labelling defeat a major blow for Tsang
Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's administration suffered a major setback yesterday when two proposed exemptions from the future food-labelling law were blocked by pan-democratic and grass-roots lawmakers, being rejected by a single vote.
Liberal Party chairman James Tien Pei-chun, who had lobbied hard for the government's amendments - which included an exemption from the new law for health foods sold in small volumes - said Secretary for Food and Heath York Chow Yat-ngok should consider how to shoulder the responsibility. Mr Tien said the results indicated Mr Tsang's professed executive-led governance was in crisis. 'In foreign countries, a lot of governments under these circumstances might request that the secretary consider stepping down,' he said, although he did not call directly for Dr Chow's resignation.
Both the government amendments, to exempt all foods with a sales volume under 30,000 a year from the regulations as well as allowing food products to claim zero-gram trans-fat according to the definition of 'zero' in their original jurisdiction - were blocked. Out of the 53 lawmakers present yesterday, only 26 supported the amendments.
Mr Tien asked whether the government, Dr Chow in particular, had done enough to lobby lawmakers.
However, voting records showed the government's lobbying efforts had succeeded with Patrick Lau Sau-shing and Raymond Ho Chung-tai. Both had pledged to oppose the amendments, but voted for them in the vote.
The failure of the amendments means the food-labelling regulations as originally drafted will take effect after a two-year grace period, with a review of the regulations a year later. Since the government had introduced the regulations through a negative vetting procedure, under which they would go ahead unless legislators found something objectionable in them, they cannot be withdrawn.
Health foods will have to carry labels detailing total energy and seven elements: protein, carbohydrates, total fat, saturated fat, trans-fatty acids, sodium and sugar. Only food items without health claims, and with sales volumes of less than 30,000 will be exempt.
Retailers had warned that about 15,000 food lines would disappear from shops if claimed health foods had to carry the labels, as their low sales in Hong Kong would not be worth the cost of repackaging.
Dr Chow said he was happy the food-labelling regulation had been put into effect but was disappointed the amendments were voted down. He said traders would have to do their best to meet the requirements.
Chinese University political analyst Ivan Choy Chi-keung said this could be the 'end of the era of executive led-governance'. 'Donald Tsang Yam-kuen can expect a lot of trouble now.' He said the controversy over the newly appointed undersecretaries might have caused the government to take its eye off the labelling issue, as it appeared there had been a simple miscalculation of votes.
Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong lawmaker Wong Ting-kwong, who would have supported the amendments, was not in Hong Kong. But party chairman Tam Yiu-chung said the government was aware of his absence. City University analyst James Sung Lap-kung supported Mr Tien's suggestion that Mr Tsang and Dr Chow would have to seriously consider how to be accountable.
