Formosa representative nets termination with “fish or steel” comment

Chou Chun-fan told newspaper Tuoi Tre that he had received the decision to terminate his employment from the company’s leadership this morning and was heading back to Taiwan.

“I was fired because of my comment that caused a public uproar. I deserved to be. I have to take responsibility for my actions. I currently feel very sad and hope that the Vietnamese people will forgive my mistake. Again, I would like to apologise,” he said.

Earlier, in response to allegations that Formosa’s pollution caused the mass dying of fish along the central coast of Vietnam, Chou said in an interview with VTCNews that, “sometimes there is a trade-off.” The leadership of Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Ltd. then held a press conference during which they distanced themselves of the comment and promised to punish him for acting without permission.

Today the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment met with other government agencies and provincial authorities affected by the mass fish death to discuss and announce the results of the investigation to find the cause. Reporters were not allowed in.

Formosa has a bad track record regarding pollution. In 2009, two Formosa subsidiaries in the US, Formosa Plastics Corp. (Texas) and Formosa Plastics Corp. (Louisiana), were fined $10 million over violations of air, water, and hazardous waste disposal regulations at their petrochemical plants in Point Comfort, Texas, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

In 2013, Formosa Plastics Corp. was fined almost $1.5 million by US Environmental Protection Agency for failing to install more than 8,000 units of leak detection and repair equipment at its plastics and chemicals plant in Point Comfort. These violations are part of a list of 15 environmental violations in the US for which Formosa has been fined.

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