A Heritage Foundation fellow said on Wednesday in a report that US businesses generally support the signing of a free-trade agreement (FTA) between the US and Taiwan and that such an agreement is long overdue.
The US, for its benefit, should sign an FTA with Taiwan the sooner the better, John Tkacik, a senior research fellow in China, Taiwan and Mongolia policy in the foundation's Asian Studies Center wrote in an article that was published on-line on Wednesday titled Free Trade with Taiwan is Long Overdue.
A US-Taiwan FTA has a lot to offer for everyone and promises to be more beneficial to US exports than to Taiwan's exports, Tkacik said, adding that a US-Taiwan FTA has the potential to boost US jobs in key manufacturing industries, with autos and business equipment topping the list.
US manufacturers of other machinery and equipment, especially office equipment, engines, turbines, communications equipment, appliances and an array of industrial control computers would enjoy similar increases in exports if a US-Taiwan FTA were signed, he said.
Meanwhile, he said, Taiwan is an important global power in its own right. Taiwan is now the world's 16th largest economy, the 10th largest trading power and the "third-largest holder of foreign exchange reserves after China and Japan."
He said Taiwan has a larger population than Australia and a larger GDP than any ASEAN member. For the past two decades, he said, Taiwan has consistently ranked as one of the US' top 10 export markets and it already gives fairly free access to imported US goods and services, which totaled US$23 billion last year.
Among other things, a US-Taiwan FTA would increase US rice, poultry and livestock exports and open a significant new market for new research medicines, he said.
US pharmaceutical companies would also gain, given the openness of Taiwan officials in discussing National Health Insurance pharmaceutical reimbursements, he said.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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