President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has urged Canada to re-examine and hopefully remove its restrictions on visits by Taiwan's high-level officials.
Chen made the call while meeting a delegation of Canadian lawmakers at the Presidential Office yesterday morning.
As Taiwan is Canada's seventh-largest source of tourists, Chen said he hoped Ottawa would consider offering visa-free privileges to Taiwanese visitors.
Canada also ranks fourth on the list of favorite countries for advanced study for Taiwanese students. There are about 15,000 Taiwanese studying in Canada, a number that has increased by about 2,500 per year.
Chen said he hoped to sign a mutual assistance pact with the Canadian government to combat terrorism and international crime.
Despite the lack of official diplomatic relations, Chen said he was glad that the delegation was visiting to show their friendship, concern and support for Taiwan.
Chen thanked the Canadian parliament for its staunch support and the Canadian government for its concern for peace, security and stability in the Taiwan Strait, as well as for its concern for the health of the Taiwanese people.
The Canadian parliament has passed six resolutions over the past four years in support of Taiwan's bid to join the World Health Assembly as an observer. Canadian Minister of Health Tony Clement spoke in favor of Taiwan's meaningful participation in the WHO after the voting process on May 14.
Ottawa has also expressed strong opposition to China's "Anti-Secession" Law.
As Taiwan enjoyed a US$2.2 billion trade surplus with Canada, the president said he was glad his administration has worked to balance the figures, including conditionally lifting the ban on imports of Canadian beef.
Chen said the decision was based on professional opinions and scientific appraisal. Taiwan is the fifth largest market for Canadian beef. Several Asian markets, including China, Japan and Taiwan, banned Canadian beef after a mad cow case surfaced in Canada in May 2003.
Chen said he would like to see the two countries work for better trade ties and economic cooperation based on the foundation of bilateral trade relations. Taiwan is Canada's 11th biggest trade partner in the world and the 4th in Asia. Bilateral trade was recorded at US$4.6 billion last year.
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
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the