Taiwan's top labor affairs administrator is set to arrive in Washington today to push for the signing of a free trade agreement (FTA).
Council of Labor Affairs Chairman Lee Ying-yuan (
Lee will focus his talks on labor-related topics that are a major concern for the US in gauging whether to sign an FTA with Taiwan, sources said.
Previous US State Department human rights reports have mentioned problems in Taiwan's migrant worker management, issues with welfare services and poor working conditions for wage earners.
Lee is expected to brief US officials and think tank scholars on Taiwan's labor policy and its efforts to improve welfare benefits for both native wage earners and foreign laborers.
Lee said his goal was "clarifying any misperceptions and misunderstandings."
Taiwan officials stationed in Washington said the office of the US Trade Representative had never explicitly stated that Taiwan's labor conditions were a hindrance to an FTA.
The officials also said that Taiwan's Labor Standards Law (
"We believe that Lee's briefing on our achievements in labor rights protection will contribute to the FTA drive," an official from the Taiwan representative office in Washington said.
John Deng (鄧振中), Taiwan's deputy representative to the US who will soon depart for home to take over as Taiwan's first top international trade negotiator, said Lee's US visit was a wise move in the promotion of an FTA.
"The push for a Taiwan-US FTA requires concerted efforts of all government departments. It would be very helpful if the heads of various administrative agencies could come to the US capital for direct dialogue with their US counterparts," Deng said in an interview.
In addition to the trade and labor departments, the Environmental Protection Administration should also send delegates to Washington to communicate Taiwan's needs, he said.
Lee's itinerary indicated he would deliver a speech on Tuesday on improving Asian labor standards at the Center for National Policy, a US think tank dedicated to research and debate on issues of national interest.
He will also attend a seminar at the US Heritage Foundation, another Washington-based think tank.
Before wrapping up his trip on Thursday, Lee will brief Taiwanese journalists posted in Washington on the purposes and accomplishments of his visit.
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