The amended regulations also authorize the government to ask the U.S. side to stop exporting beef products to Taiwan that fail to meet Taiwan's import standards on two separate occasions.

The notification was accompanied by a set of management measures on imported beef quarantine and inspection that would keep out of Taiwan's markets beef products that were permitted in a controversial protocol on the issue signed by Taiwan and the United States.

Under the new management measures, frozen ground beef and offal imported from the U.S. would have to defrosted upon their arrival, effectively serving as a way to block the controversial meat products without violating the protocol.

The measures also address another quality control issue.

"As the U.S. Department of Agriculture does not issue quality system assessment (QSA) certificates for ground beef, Taiwan's trade authorities will not issue import permits for the product, " they read.

The measures noted that Taiwan will import U.S. bone-in beef and beef products from cattle 30 months of age or younger, excluding "specific risk materials" defined as tonsils and the ileum of the small intestine.

But the government will conduct safety checks on 5 to 100 percent of beef product imports to ensure they are not contaminated by potentially hazardous materials.

(By Chen Ching-fang & Elizabeth Hsu)