Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Chairman Chen Deming (陳德銘) said yesterday that it would be regrettable if the cross-strait service trade agreement fails to pass the legislature in the near term.
The Chinese official said he expects Taiwan’s well-developed service sector, which accounts for 70 percent of its GDP, to integrate with China’s domestic market, which is seeking further liberalization.
The two nations are expected to benefit from the service trade agreement because it is key to adjustments in the two sides’ current economic structures and covers a wide range of industries, he said.
“If the agreement passes, it will contribute greatly to Taiwan’s economic development. If the deal fails to pass, I will feel deep regret for Taiwanese,” Chen said during a keynote speech at a business seminar held by Lingnan College at the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China.
Chen said he does not understand whether protesters in Taiwan have concerns about the content or the approval process of the trade pact, but added that the two types of concerns are different issues.
He was responding to the student-led protesters’ occupation of the Legislative Yuan in reaction to an attempt by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to send the agreement straight to a vote on the legislative floor, bypassing legislative committee review.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
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A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it