Japan has refused to resume negotiations over an economic partnership agreement until Taipei lifts a ban on food imports from five Japanese prefectures, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday.
Japan is dissatisfied with the ban, as most developed nations have eased restrictions on Japanese food imports and because Taiwan has not found unacceptable levels of radiation during inspections of Japanese food products, the ministry said in a report to the Legislative Yuan.
Due to the ban, Japan is unwilling to resume the operation of the Taiwan-Japan Economic Partnership Committee, which is the framework for discussing the agreement, it said.
Japan believes that Taiwan, as a WTO member, should base its restrictions on scientific evidence and those restrictions should align with WTO regulations, the ministry said.
Taiwan should seek economic partnership agreements with important trade partners, such as Japan and the US, especially at a time when the fate of the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership is uncertain, to avoid being marginalized in the international economic arena, it said.
Taiwan banned food imports from Japan’s Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma and Chiba prefectures in the wake of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster following a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, 2011.
According to the ban, even food products that test negative for radiation are restricted from entering Taiwan if they come from one of the five prefectures.
The government is considering lifting the ban on food imports from at least some of the prefectures, but has encountered heavy opposition from the public, due to food safety concerns.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
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
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai