Taiwan will never be allowed into the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement until it removes restrictions on the import of US beef and pork, a conference on US-Taiwan relations was told on Friday.
“It would be difficult to exaggerate the importance of agricultural issues, especially beef and pork, to [US] Congressional House and Senate attitudes about the TPP,” analyst Chris Nelson said.
A former Congress staff member with decades of experience on US-Taiwan issues, Nelson said that until the US agricultural community had signed off on the TPP, “it ain’t going to happen.”
If the agricultural community does not get what it wants from Taiwan on the beef and pork issues, he said, Taiwan would not gain entrance to the TPP.
“If Taiwan wants to get into TPP and it is still screwing around on beef and pork, it is not going to meet the basic qualification and be taken seriously,” Nelson said.
Asked if a solution to the beef and pork issue was a prerequisite to gaining US support for Taiwanese entry to the TPP in a second round of negotiations that could start later this year, former Congressional Research Service specialist in Asian security affairs Shirley Kan said: “The fact that you even have to ask this question just astonishes me.”
“This is serious,” she said. “Are you in denial?”
“We have heard all the arguments and excuses from Taiwan,” she said. “How they can’t do a thing, because elections are coming up. Well, there are no elections this year in Taiwan. Let’s not waste this year. If people are serious, this is the window of opportunity. Whether you use it or not is up to you.”
She said that Taiwan had a lot of work to do to restore trust as a reliable economic partner that relied on scientific and international standards.
“Taiwan has to — by itself, today — remove the remaining obstacles concerning beef and pork,” she said.
Kan said that, if this was not done, people might look back in years to come and say that Taipei had committed a strategic blunder.
“Will Taiwan let this opportunity go?” she asked.
Kan said that it was ironic that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could not forge a domestic political consensus for the benefit of the country.
“Where is the leadership in the KMT and the DPP?” she asked.
Taiwan is struggling to gain US support for membership in the TPP, which could be of enormous benefit to Taiwan’s economy.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Monday called for greater cooperation between Taiwan, Lithuania and the EU to counter threats to information security, including attacks on undersea cables and other critical infrastructure. In a speech at Vilnius University in the Lithuanian capital, Tsai highlighted recent incidents in which vital undersea cables — essential for cross-border data transmission — were severed in the Taiwan Strait and the Baltic Sea over the past year. Taiwanese authorities suspect Chinese sabotage in the incidents near Taiwan’s waters, while EU leaders have said Russia is the likely culprit behind similar breaches in the Baltic. “Taiwan and our European
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS