President Ma Ying-jeou met with members of his own party – the Kuomintang – on Wednesday to clarify his administration's stance on the recent row over the import of more types of beef from the United States.

Ma said the decision to allow the imports was based on the fact that both Taiwan and the United States are members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the desire to improve Taiwan-US relations. Ma said that such legislation must not breach the US-Taiwan protocol on beef imports. He said this would damage US-Taiwan relations and also Taiwan's international reputation.

Ma said that he understood that there was opposition to the opening of more imports of US beef and that there was no problem with people refusing to import or consume the products.

Meanwhile, the head of Taiwan's opposition Democratic Progressive Party, Tsai Ying-wen, called on party members to urge the public to participate in protests against US beef on November 14th.