Taiwan should not lose sight of the big picture in its trade relations with the US, as US pork imports are only one of the many trade matters being discussed between the two sides, a US Department of State official said on Tuesday.
“We can talk about the pork issue in more detail, but we also want to make sure that we’re focused on the overall economic relationship, which is so key to people in both of our economies,” US principal deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Susan Thornton said in an interview.
Noting that Taiwan is the US’ ninth-largest trading partner and its seventh-largest market for agricultural products, Thornton said the two sides are discussing a wide range of issues under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA).
These issues, for instance, include increasing trade and encouraging Taiwanese investments in the US, she said.
What Taiwan and the US are discussing under the TIFA would also “be a kind of a stepping stone to things that would need to be done by Taiwan in order to qualify itself for entry into TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership],” Thornton added.
On the question of Taiwan’s ban on US pork that contains residues of the leanness-enhancing drug ractopamine, Thornton said Taiwan’s standards on meat imports would be one of the issues that would “come into play at some point” in bilateral talks.
The US stance is that “these kinds of standards should be based on scientific standards and things that can be shown and proven through experience and experimentation,” she said.
During President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) first term in office, the US pushed for the government to lift the ban on US beef containing ractopamine as a condition to restarting TIFA talks, which had been suspended since 2007.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) adamantly opposed lifting the ban until the Codex Alimentarius Commission, a UN body that sets food standards, voted in July 2012 to allow ractopamine residues in pork, beef and turkey.
Soon after the Codex vote, the government formally eased the ban on US beef imports containing traces of ractopamine, which led to the resumption of TIFA talks.
However, the Ma administration and the DPP have continued to support “zero tolerance” for ractopamine in pork imports, which became a subject of debate ahead of the Jan. 16 presidential and legislative elections.
The DPP and president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) have since said that there is no preset stance on the US pork issue, but they would handled it in line with international regulations and with the goals of ensuring food safety and reducing the impact on Taiwan’s pig farming industry.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
RSS