Following Beijing's recent vows to grant Taiwanese agricultural goods greater market access, Taiwan yesterday indicated that it was willing to see an increase in the export of fruits and vegetables to China, but cautioned exporters not to move too fast.
"Right now there are no regulations barring the export of agricultural products to China, but exporters need to understand the risks involved," Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Vice Chairman Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) said yesterday during a scheduled press conference.
According to Chiu, the three primary obstacles facing Taiwanese exporters selling produce to China face are a steep customs tax of 16 percent, limited channels of distribution and inefficient customs procedures and inspection processes.
increased exports
Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) moved to entice the agricultural sector to increase exports to China during a press conference on Feb 25.
In addition to the widely reported proposal regarding the operation of cross-strait charter flights for the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday next month, the TAO also invited Taiwanese agricultural representatives and experts to visit China and said that it would expand access to the Chinese market for agricultural exports from Taiwan.
While the MAC seemed to welcome such moves yesterday, it has also cautioned that China needs to beef up its protection of agricultural genetic intellectual property and technology. Chiu said, however, that the government was willing to give increased agricultural exports to China a try.
But he warned that China's move to increase the flow of agricultural exports to China was undoubtedly underpinned by other measures, indicating that China wanted to attract experts in the genetic modification of vegetables and fruits.
While Chiu said yesterday he was unsure of the frequency of agricultural exchanges in the past, he indicated that Beijing had indeed drawn attention to the matter in recent months.
In November, an agricultural delegation led by former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Hsu Hsin-liang (
Key Statement
In addition, Jia Qinglin (
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS