Taiwan is resolved to win the endorsement of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) member states to join the second round of negotiations and gain access to the free-trade agreement, a Cabinet spokesman said yesterday.
Taiwan welcomes the TPP, which is to create the biggest trade bloc in the Pan-Pacific region among 12 countries, Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said, citing Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) after Monday’s conclusion of TPP negotiations in Atlanta, Georgia, to lower trade barriers and enhance investment protection.
Sun said that since last year, the Executive Yuan has called nine special task force meetings to devise complementary measures and revise local laws and regulations in line with international norms, in an effort to show Taiwan’s resolve to join the TPP.
It is imperative that Taiwan, an export-oriented nation, gains access to the TPP, Sun said.
Taiwan’s participation in the trade pact would be tantamount to several economic cooperation agreements, securing an opportunity for fair competition and creating broader foreign trade horizons for the nation, he added.
When the TPP takes effect, its economic scale is expected to be about US$28 trillion, accounting for 36 percent of the world’s overall production value, according to the Executive Yuan.
It said the 12 TPP member states — Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam — are all important trade partners.
Taiwan’s shipments to the 12 countries last year totaled US$103 billion, making up one-third of its overall exports, the Executive Yuan said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened 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), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS