Panama is expected to sign a free-trade agreement with Taiwan as early as June, although the two sides have yet to resolve disagreements over market access and tariff-reductions, Ministry of Foreign Affairs sources said yesterday.
Javier Hou (
Hou said both sides are expected to work on six areas of the draft agreement during the May talks.
If the negotiations go smooth-ly, a deal is expected to be signed sometime in June or July, Hou said.
Panamanian Ambassador Jose Antonio Dominguez said on Monday that he's optimistic about the pact and believes it could be sealed sometime in June.
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆), a key negotiator in the talks, said there is still disagreement over market access for certain goods and services.
"They seek to seal a mutually beneficial and balanced package," Chen said in a phone interview. "We'll take their considerations into account and vice versa."
Chen denied reports that have suggested Panama's demands are excessive.
The signing of the pact would make Panama the first country to reach such an agreement with Taiwan.
Hou said that if talks take longer than expected a pact should still be signed within the year.
The ambassador stressed the political will of leaders in both countries has been instrumental in getting the trade talks going.
During his visit to Panama in August, Premier Yu Shyi-kun signed a joint statement with Vice President Dominador Kaiser Baldonero Bazan expressing the two sides' determination to resume trade talks.
The first round of trade talks between the two nations took place last October, followed by a second round in January and a third last month.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching