EU Representative to Taiwan Federic Laplanche yesterday called on the government to work harder towards abolishing or adopt a moratorium on the death penalty, adding that the EU wished to work with Taiwan on the matter.
“We understand that it’s difficult to achieve [the goals] and we would like to make some contributions through cooperation with NGOs and the Taiwan government,” Laplanche told a press conference.
Asked by reporters whether he thought the government was earnest in advancing the abolition of the death penalty, Laplanche said: “No. Not enough.”
The EU has had its position clearly expressed in the two statements, he said.
As for trade relations between the EU and Taiwan, Laplanche emphasized the importance of Taiwan removing trade barriers to EU exports and investments, and bringing its regulatory regime into line with international standards.
Since the EU embarked on an approach of engaging with its trading partners through free-trade agreements when it launched its “Global Europe” strategy in 2006, it has identified a number of Asian countries as priorities for trade agreements — Taiwan was not on the list.
Nowhere was Taiwan mentioned in the EU trade and investment policy for 2010 to 2015 set out in a communication from the European Commission to the European Council and European Parliament released in December.
Asked about the EU’s view on trade enhancement measures, a case Taiwan and the European Commerce of Chamber Taipei (ECCT) have repeatedly made over the years, Laplanche said a study by the ECCT concluded that such an agreement would be beneficial to both sides.
“However, we also have other elements to take into account, including the current market access problem that the EU has in Taiwan. It makes no sense to move forward if we have not solved current issues. For the time being, we are going to concentrate on the current market issues,” Laplanche said.
Laplanche named a few examples among the issues of concerns to the ECCT as stated in its position papers.
“We have problems in [Taiwan’s] double-testing [requirement]. In the automotive sector as well as other sectors, the products that have already been tested in Europe needs to be tested again,” he said.
“That makes things very difficult for importers,” he added.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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