The government is considering establishing stores in big cities to sell authentic made-in-Taiwan (MIT) products as part of its effort to curb rampant Chinese counterfeiting, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said yesterday.
Lai said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Wednesday instructed the Ministry of Economic Affairs to set up a task force in charge of cracking down on smuggled Chinese goods when he visited a bedding company in Tainan and after listening to the grievances of business representatives.
Ma’s visit was part of his nationwide campaign to promote an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) the administration intends to sign with Beijing next month.
Lai said the government hoped the trial-run stores would allow consumers easier access to the 4,000 locally made products with made-in-Taiwan authentication, which guarantees high quality and reasonable prices.
Lai accused the former Democratic Progressive Party administration of doing a bad job on cracking down on Chinese contraband and therefore creating an unfair environment for local businesses that had to compete with cheaper and inferior Chinese bootlegged products.
On an ECFA, Lai said that while 17 traditional businesses could be hurt by the proposed accord, the negotiating team would “do its best” to exclude them from the “early harvest” list.
The “early harvest” list refers to a list of goods and services that will be subject to immediate tariff concessions or exemptions, which are expected to form the backbone of the proposed deal.
Lai said Taipei and Beijing agreed during the last round of negotiations in Taoyuan last month that China would “do its best” to prevent the trade pact from affecting Taiwan’s weaker industries.
“The firewall is secured,” she said.
While neither side revealed their “early harvest” lists during the last round of negotiations, Lai said yesterday that if the items China wished to include in the “early harvest” list were businesses targeting the local market, it would definitely deal a significant blow to them because local Taiwanese products would have to compete with cheaper Chinese products.
Lai denied that the country is compelled by the WTO to open up 90 percent of the market to China within 10 years after the trade deal is signed.
“It is not compulsory,” she said. “An ECFA is not a free-trade agreement demanding the parties to open up their respective markets immediately after the agreement is signed. An ECFA is an economic agreement in the spirit of the WTO, but it has the unique features of both sides of the Taiwan Strait.”
There was too much “false information” and “misunderstanding” about an ECFA, she said, adding that the administration would “proceed gradually and carefully every step on the way” and take into consideration the development of the country’s overall economy and business sectors during the process.
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,”
RSS