The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it hopes Beijing will stop imposing nontariff trade barriers under the pretext of food safety, after the Kinmen County Government announced that China lifted its import ban on kaoliang liquor.
The Chinese General Administration of Customs issued a customs registration code for Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor Inc (KKL, 金門酒廠), enabling the company to export its products to China from Saturday, the county said.
The company received the code after Kinmen County Commissioner Chen Fu-hai (陳福海) and county officials traveled to Xiamen, China, on Saturday to meet with Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Director Sung Tao (宋濤), it said.
Photo: Wu Cheng-Ting, Taipei Times
Chinese customs halted imports of beer and distilled products from 11 of 28 Taiwanese suppliers, starting on Dec. 9 last year, including KKL, Taihu Brewing (台虎精釀), King Car Food Industrial Co (金車企業), Legend Brewery Co (傳奇酒業), Win Shan International Co (雲山酒廠) and state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Corp (台灣菸酒公司).
In addition, shipments of 123 of 354 beverage items registered by Taiwanese exporters were also suspended.
The MAC said it viewed the Kinmen announcement positively, adding that it hopes China would stop imposing such barriers to trade.
After last month’s suspensions, the government, following WTO regulations and bilateral agreements, asked China to remove the nontariff trade barriers to protect the rights and interests of Taiwanese exporters, the MAC said.
Now that Chinese customs officials have approved KKL’s registration and resumed imports, hopefully normal trade across the Taiwan Strait could be restored, it said.
Chinese customs authorities imposed a ban on imports of groupers from Taiwan in June, which was later expanded to include products from Taiwanese food companies.
At the time, TAO spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) said that some Taiwanese exporters could not receive approval for their goods because they failed to provide complete information under a new registration system.
Zhu said the registration system was introduced in April 2021 and took effect on Jan. 1 last year.
However, KKL spokesman Chen Qi-zhan (陳啟展) said at the time that his company had secured a qualification code from Chinese customs as early as Dec. 28 last year, which was supposed to be valid until Dec. 28, 2026.
TAO spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) yesterday said in a statement that 63 Taiwanese exporters, including KKL, recently provided the information needed to update their registration under the new system.
Additional reporting by Lu Yi-hsuan
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique