Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said yesterday it was wrong for the secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to describe the importation of two giant pandas from China as a “domestic trade.”
CITES Secretary Juan Carlos Vasquez said on Monday that in accordance with UN policy, the transporting of the two pandas to Taiwan would be a matter of “internal or domestic trade” and as such did not need to be reported to CITES.
Lai yesterday said she could not dictate what CITES says about the matter, but that it was not correct to say that the importation of the two animals was domestic.
“Besides, [the pandas] must go through customs. Why would they need to do that if it were a domestic trade?” she said.
Lai said the legal documents concerning the export and import of the animals were based on CITES regulations and international practice.
Precedents had been set by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration when endangered herbs were imported from China.
Asked whether Taiwan would file a complaint with CITES over the matter, Lai said clearing things up should not be a problem. However, Taiwan is not a UN member and it was beyond the country’s power to tell the organization what to do, she said.
Straits Exchange Foundation Deputy Chairman Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) on Tuesday said the animals never had anything to do with CITES.
Kao said that during negotiations with China, both sides reached a consensus that they would follow the precedent set by the DPP administration in 2002 and 2003. In other words, the import had to comply with Chinese regulations on the export and import of endangered flora and fauna, he said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei MRT is to begin accepting mobile payment services in the fall, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said on Saturday. When the company finishes the installation of new payment units at ticketing gates in October, MRT passengers can use credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay, the operator said. In addition, the MRT would also provide QR payment codes — which would be compatible with Line Pay, Jkopay, iPass Money, PXPay Plus, EasyWallet, iCash Pay, Taiwan Pay and Taishin Pay — to access the railway system. Currently, passengers can access the Taipei MRT by buying a single-journey token or using EasyCard,
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