Agreements were made on Friday in the latest round of fishery talks between Taiwan and Japan, but the two sides remain divided on the main issue addressed at the meeting.
The sticking point of the two-day talks that began in Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County on Thursday involved the direction in which fishing lines are deployed and the distance longline fishing boats must keep between them during operations in the two countries’ overlapping waters.
The Japanese side proposed the adoption of its operating method, in which fishing vessels deploy their lines in a north-south direction and maintain a 4 nautical mile (7.4km) distance between one another.
The Taiwanese side, which has more fishing boats operating in the area, advocated its traditional approach, which is to deploy lines in an east-west direction and maintain a 1 nautical mile distance between boats.
There are about 150 Taiwanese fishing boats operating in the overlapping waters of Taiwan’s and Japan’s marine economic zones, while Japan only has a few dozen.
There are concerns that if Taiwan were to comply with Japan’s request, the number of Taiwanese boats operating in the area would have to be reduced to just 50.
Suao Fishermen’s Association director Chen Chun-sheng (陳春生) said after the talks that the two sides’ operating methods prevented an agreement from being reached on the issue, but a consensus was reached on issues related to insurance and dispute management.
As part of the agreement, the Taiwanese side will ask the Council of Agriculture’s Fisheries Agency to require all Taiwanese fishing boats to have third-party liability insurance, Chen said.
The new requirement will enable fishing vessel crews involved in collisions to simply exchange insurance information and then let their insurance companies handle the claims quickly, he said.
At the moment, some Taiwanese fishing boats operating alongside their Japanese counterparts do not have third-party liability coverage.
The two sides also reached a consensus on establishing a channel for settling disputes, which would enable Chinese and Japanese speakers on land to learn of an incident at sea via radio and help solve the problem.
The two sides also agreed to hold further talks, although no date was set.
The outcomes of the latest talks will be submitted to a bilateral fishery commission for consideration, Chen said.
The series of talks, which have involved foreign affairs and fishery officials and fishing industry representatives from Taiwan and Japan, were held after the signing of a historic bilateral fishery agreement in April.
That agreement allowed Taiwanese fishermen to operate, free of interference by Japanese authorities, in an additional 4,530km2 of waters, mostly near the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), which are claimed by Taiwan, China and Japan, where they are known as the Senkaku Islands.
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
CHANGES: After-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during vacations or after-school study periods must not be used to teach new material, the ministry said The Ministry of Education yesterday announced new rules that would ban giving tests to most elementary and junior-high school students during morning study and afternoon rest periods. The amendments to regulations governing public education at elementary schools and junior high schools are to be implemented on Aug. 1. The revised rules stipulate that schools are forbidden to use after-school tutoring periods, extracurricular activities during summer or winter vacation or after-school study periods to teach new course material. In addition, schools would be prohibited from giving tests or exams to students in grades one to eight during morning study and afternoon break periods, the
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
Advocates of the rights of motorcycle and scooter riders yesterday protested in front of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in Taipei, making three demands. They were joined by 30 passenger vehicles, which surrounded the ministry to make three demands related to traffic regulations — that motorcycles and scooters above 250cc be allowed on highways, that all motorcycles and scooters be allowed on inside lanes, and that driver and rider training programs be reformed. The ministry said that it has no plans to allow motorcycles on national highways for the time being, and said that motorcycles would be allowed on the inner