Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) lawmakers yesterday accused Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
According to Deputy Minister Lee Jen-chyuan (
High production has caused a decrease in the market price.
Lee, invited by the TSU caucus for a report on the matter yesterday, said: "We subsidize exporters if they purchase oranges from farmers at prices higher than NT$12 per kilogram."
Lee said his council had launched a program to encourage export last month.
In the program, exporters can apply for a subsidy of NT$2.5 per kilogram if they purchased oranges from farmers at a price higher than NT$12.
"But farmers now believe it's the KMT and China who are helping them," TSU Legislator Yin Ling-ying (尹伶瑛) said, referring to a recent statement by Ma.
On a visit to Yunlin County last Thursday, Ma promised local orange farmers to help out by purchasing 1,200 tonnes of oranges to export to China.
"Ma made his statement on Jan. 11, but our plan was launched on Dec. 12," Lee said.
"Our policy was not made for any particular political party or any particular politician," he said, "and China is only one of the export destinations."
The policy to encourage export of excess fruit has been in place since 2003, and Japan is the major importer.
"If this is the case, Ma is falsely taking credit for it," TSU Legislator Tseng Tsahn-deng (
"You [the COA] should let the farmers know that it is not only one particular political party that cares about them," he added.
At the request of the TSU, the COA agreed to visit Yunlin County to explain the policy to local farmers.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
RSS