The EU would not rule out the possibility of signing a bilateral investment agreement (BIA) with Taiwan, even though it observes a “one China” policy, a European Commission official said on Tuesday.
The EU in 2015 included Taiwan in its list of trade partners for BIAs, but has not held negotiations on the issue since then, except to state in a trade policy report in September 2017 that it was preparing to hold investment talks with Taipei.
HEARING
At a public hearing on EU-Taiwan trade relations held by the European Parliament Committee on International Trade, Peter Berz, head of relations with the Far East in the European Commission Directorate-General for Trade, was asked by a lawmaker if the reluctance to negotiate an agreement was the result of pressure from China.
Although the EU adheres to a “one China” policy, it would not rule out the possibility of forging such an accord with Taiwan, Berz said, adding that any such talks would require approval from the commission.
A joint panel set up by the two sides to address the issue has convened five times to date, which has helped the EU and Taiwan acquire deeper knowledge of each other’s investment policies, Berz said.
The public hearing was also attended by Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮) and European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan chief executive Freddie Hoglund.
The EU is Taiwan’s largest source of foreign capital and its fifth-largest trade partner, while Taiwan is the EU’s sixth-largest trade partner in Asia, Ministry of Economic Affairs data showed.
FRIENDSHIP
In a news release yesterday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it welcomed the hearing — the first ever held at the EU on the issue.
“Since 2015 ... the European Parliament has passed three resolutions supporting the signing of a Taiwan-EU bilateral investment agreement. This public hearing once again underscores its friendship and support to Taiwan,” it said, urging the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, to take concrete action to push for the inking of a BIA.
Additional reporting by Stacy Hsu
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
The first tropical storm of the year in the western North Pacific, Wutip (蝴蝶), has formed over the South China Sea and is expected to move toward Hainan Island off southern China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. The agency said a tropical depression over waters near the Paracel and Zhongsha islands strengthened into a tropical storm this morning. The storm had maximum sustained winds near its center of 64.8kph, with peak gusts reaching 90kph, it said. Winds at Beaufort scale level 7 — ranging from 50kph to 61.5kph — extended up to 80km from the center, it added. Forecaster Kuan Hsin-ping
COMMITMENTS: The company had a relatively low renewable ratio at 56 percent and did not have any goal to achieve 100 percent renewable energy, the report said Pegatron Corp ranked the lowest among five major final assembly suppliers in progressing toward Apple Inc’s commitment to be 100 percent carbon neutral by 2030, a Greenpeace East Asia report said yesterday. While Apple has set the goal of using 100 percent renewable energy across its entire business, supply chain and product lifecycle by 2030, carbon emissions from electronics manufacturing are rising globally due to increased energy consumption, it said. Given that carbon emissions from its supply chain accounted for more than half of its total emissions last year, Greenpeace East Asia evaluated the green transition performance of Apple’s five largest final
RSS