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OIE to tweak charter: MOFA official

The World Organisation for Animal Heath (OIE) will revise its charter to change the term “member country” to “member” as a friendly gesture to Taiwan, a senior Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said.

Taiwan gained entry to the OIE in 1954 under the name “Republic of China (Taiwan),” but was forced to change its title to “Taipei China” after Beijing was admitted to the organization in 1992.

In 2007, China again pressured members of the Paris-based OIE to adopt a resolution downgrading Taiwan’s membership status to “non-sovereign regional member.”

Although China succeeded in having Taiwan’s membership status downgraded, the OIE agreed to change Taiwan’s title from “Taipei China” to “Chinese Taipei” after the intervention of the US, Japan and the EU.

But as the OIE Charter makes no mention of “non-sovereign regional members,” there was no basis for the 2007 resolution, the official said yesterday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The OIE Secretariat plans to revise the charter to replace the term “member country” with “member,” he said, to avoid the differentiation of members as “member countries” and “non-sovereign regional members” and ensure that all members are on an equal footing.

The official said the change would make it clear that the 2007 resolution was baseless.

He said the ministry was happy with the OIE’s move and hoped that other international organizations would realize that Taiwan and China had stopped their political wrangling and treat Taiwan fairly so that it could deepen its contributions to the international community.

He also said the 2007 resolution had not affected the OIE’s operations or Taiwan’s participation.

When Council of Agriculture official Sung Hua-tsung (宋華聰) attended OIE meetings, he still wore a name tag bearing the word “member” as did the representatives of other member states. On the OIE Web site, Taiwan was listed as one of the 172 member states under the name “Taipei (Chinese),” the official said.

The ministry official said nonpolitical international bodies like the OIE were unhappy with political wrangling between Taiwan and China at the organizations.

Cross-strait relations have warmed since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office last year, the official said, and the world has seen the benefits of increased cross-strait interaction.

The 77th OIE assembly will be held between May 24 and May 29 in Paris.
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