The Salvadoran Supreme Court on Wednesday provisionally suspended the cancelation of a free-trade agreement with Taiwan and agreed to hear a challenge to its legality.
The ruling came after El Salvador’s sugar chamber filed a request for the injunction with the country’s highest court, saying that the decision by Salvadoran President Salvador Sanchez Ceren to cancel the trade agreement put the sector’s property rights and legal security in jeopardy.
The free-trade agreement had been scheduled to end today.
Photo: AFP
Ceren’s administration, which ends when Salvadoran president-elect Nayib Bukele takes office on June 1, said in a statement that its actions on the trade agreement complied with termination rules spelled out in the deal, as well as with international conventions.
Exiting the deal was part of the accords struck with China after El Salvador switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing in August last year, it said.
Meanwhile, Bukele told reporters in a speech at the Washington-based Heritage Foundation that no final decision has been made on whether to reverse the outgoing government’s decision to switch recognition.
“That decision has not been taken,” Bukele said, when asked about the issue.
However, he confirmed that his team has held a meeting regarding the matter.
The comments came after Federico Anliker, a member of Bukele’s team and secretary-general of his New Ideas party, last month said that the incoming administration would investigate why the outgoing government forged ties with China, as his party was not consulted nor given an explanation over the decision.
Regarding China, Bukele criticized the world’s second-largest economy as “not playing by the rules.”
“They do not respect the rules, they don’t respect the rules of commerce; they go in, they take projects that are not feasible, then they leave the countries with huge loans they cannot repay, then they use that as leverage,” Bukele said.
He also accused Beijing of being a currency manipulator.
“They are not a democracy, but they meddle into your democracy,” he said.
The president-elect said that El Salvador wants to be friends with China, but that friendship has to be based on respect rather than money.
“If they respect us, we can have a relationship with them. If they do not respect us, we cannot have a relationship with them, even if they are the second-biggest economy in the world,” Bukele said.
Separately in Taipei yesterday, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Andrew Lee (李憲章) told reporters that the ministry was glad to see such Taiwan-friendly comments, proving that the nation’s decades-long efforts in El Salvador are bearing fruit.
The government is closely monitoring the situation, he said.
Asked about the free-trade agreement, Lee said that Taiwan welcomes and respects the decision.
Bukele won a landslide victory in last month’s presidential election, securing more than 50 percent of the vote and ending 25 years of two-party dominance in the Central American nation.
During the campaign, Bukele was critical of the benefits El Salvador received after establishing diplomatic relations with China.
El Salvador was the fifth diplomatic ally to switch recognition from Taiwan to China since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) took office in May 2016, often due to promises of huge financial assistance packages or loans from Beijing.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a