Taiwan and New Zealand are making great progress in negotiations on a bilateral economic cooperation agreement, New Zealand envoy to Taiwan, Stephen Payton, said.
“We’re making very good progress and it’s going to be a good deal,” Payton, director of the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office in Taipei, said in an interview.
Describing the agreement as an important development in bilateral ties, Payton said the Taiwan-New Zealand Economic Cooperation Agreement (ECA) will be “high-quality, comprehensive and a very good agreement for both sides.”
“When it’s concluded, people would be impressed,” he said, but declined to reveal the content of the negotiations until they have concluded and the agreement signed and made public.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the “high-quality” in Payton’s remark means that both sides will open more than 90 percent of their markets to each other, while “comprehensive” refers to the liberalization covering not only products, but also services and industrial cooperation.
In response to the Taiwanese government’s hope of signing the deal by the end of June, Payton said he would happy to see such positive results, but that it would mean that the pact would be the quickest one his country had ever forged.
Taiwan and New Zealand announced in October 2011 that they had agreed to conduct a joint study into the feasibility of an economic cooperation agreement, with negotiations starting in May last year.
When asked how much the deal would increase bilateral trade volume, Payton declined to give an estimate, saying only that “we can be hopeful [that] there will be some positive outcomes.”
“Trade agreements are not one-stop solutions to economic relationships,” Payton said, adding that there are lots of aspects of Taiwan-New Zealand relations that are not directly addressed by the agreement, such as venture capital issues.
Asked if the ECA would help Taiwan in its efforts to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade bloc, Payton said he does not see a direct relationship between the two agreements, although he added: “I certainly see various ways in which it will help Taiwan prepare itself for the possibility of joining the TPP in the future.”
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS