Following Beijing's recent vows to grant Taiwanese agricultural goods greater market access, Taiwan yesterday indicated that it was willing to see an increase in the export of fruits and vegetables to China, but cautioned exporters not to move too fast.
"Right now there are no regulations barring the export of agricultural products to China, but exporters need to understand the risks involved," Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said yesterday during a scheduled press conference.
According to Chiu, the three primary obstacles facing Taiwanese exporters selling produce to China face are a steep customs tax of 16 percent, limited channels of distribution and inefficient customs procedures and inspection processes.
increased exports
Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) moved to entice the agricultural sector to increase exports to China during a press conference on Feb 25.
In addition to the widely reported proposal regarding the operation of cross-strait charter flights for the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday next month, the TAO also invited Taiwanese agricultural representatives and experts to visit China and said that it would expand access to the Chinese market for agricultural exports from Taiwan.
While the MAC seemed to welcome such moves yesterday, it has also cautioned that China needs to beef up its protection of agricultural genetic intellectual property and technology. Chiu said, however, that the government was willing to give increased agricultural exports to China a try.
But he warned that China's move to increase the flow of agricultural exports to China was undoubtedly underpinned by other measures, indicating that China wanted to attract experts in the genetic modification of vegetables and fruits.
While Chiu said yesterday he was unsure of the frequency of agricultural exchanges in the past, he indicated that Beijing had indeed drawn attention to the matter in recent months.
In November, an agricultural delegation led by former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Hsu Hsin-liang (
Key Statement
In addition, Jia Qinglin (
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods