The government's new measures concerning cross-strait exchanges will take into consideration China's recent enactment of the "Anti-Secession" Law, the vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
Johnnason Liu (
The KMT legislative caucus invited officials from the MAC and the Council of Agriculture to report on the future course of cross-strait relations after hundreds of thousands of Taiwan people staged a march Saturday to protest against Beijing's newly-passed law.
KMT Legislator Su Chi (
Su asked what the government will do in addition to staging the March 26 protest. In response, Liu said, the government will not restrict cross-strait exchanges that are conducive to lowering tensions.
Noting that the private sector hopes to resume cross-strait talks and that the MAC said last month that cross-strait talks can be based on the bilateral discussions in Hong Kong in 1992, Su also asked about Beijing's response.
Liu also said that the government wants to forge a national consensus on a resumption of cross-strait dialogue.
Another KMT legislator, Kuo Su-chun (
In addition to exempting Taiwanese agricultural products from a 17 percent value-added tax, Guangzhou will also facilitate customs clearance, Kuo said, adding that the government should support the participation of Taiwanese agricultural products in the fair.
Chen Chieh (
Council Vice Chairman Lee Chien-chuan (
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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