The EU's 15-year-old arms embargo on China will probably be lifted within the next six months, the British government said.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on Wednesday that he expected the ban, imposed after Beijing's bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, to be lifted during Luxembourg's six-month turn as president of the EU, which lasts until the end of June.
Straw said that an end to the embargo would not see arms flood into China, due to the EU's code of conduct. The code forces member nations to ensure the weapons they sell are not used for internal repression, external aggression or where serious violations of human rights have occurred.
``Our position in principle is that, subject to satisfaction of the issues laid out by the European Council in December, we will support a lifting of the arms embargo,'' Straw told a parliamentary committee.
"I think you would get relatively short odds on a decision happening under the Luxembourg presidency. It is more likely than not that this will be decided under this presidency," he said.
Germany and France have led the calls for the ban to be lifted, and argue that China's human rights record has improved since 1989. But other EU nations, including Sweden and Ireland, oppose the ban being lifted and want the "code of conduct" to be tightened to act as a stronger safety net if and when arms sales are resumed.
The US has pushed hard for the EU not to lift the ban and fears an escalation of tension between Beijing and Taipei.
Straw said efforts would be made to reassure Washington.
"The US have an entirely legitimate and understandable interest both in the effectiveness of the EU's system of arms control and in issues of regional stability in that area," he said.
"There will be intensive discussions with the US," he said.
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS