The legislature yesterday ratified the Agreement between Singapore and the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu on Economic Partnership (ASTEP).
The agreement is to take effect 30 days after Taiwan and Singapore notify the each other of the completion of domestic legal procedures necessitated by the agreement.
The government still needs to pass related amendments to the Customs Import Tariff Act (海關進口稅則) and Shipping Act (航業法) before it can make the required revisions to domestic laws to implement the ASTEP, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said.
Wang said the legislature will prioritize the review of related amendments once the bills have been sent to the legislature by the Executive Yuan.
The pact is expected to take effect in February or March next year as the legislative session is scheduled to end on Jan. 14.
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Bill Cho (卓士昭) yesterday said the agreement is expected to increase domestic production value by NT$40 billion (US$1.3 billion) and create 6,000 jobs.
Executive Yuan spokesperson Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) said the agreement is an important milestone and called on the legislature to work with the government to hasten the passage of related amendments to boost efforts to sign more trade pacts to avoid marginalization in the international community.
Under the agreement, Singapore is to remove all tariffs on goods from Taiwan, including on six types of alcoholic beverages not covered by Singapore’s tariff reduction commitments under the WTO.
Taiwan is to eliminate tariffs on 83 percent of Singaporean imports and gradually make 99.48 percent of products from the city-state tariff-free, officials said.
Taiwan is to maintain import tariffs on 40 agricultural products, including rice, garlic, dried mushrooms, red beans, pineapples, mangoes, coconuts and unshelled peanuts.
Additional reporting by CNA
Tainan City Councilor Lu Kun-fu (盧崑福) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday sparked further controversy when he echoed remarks by KMT caucus whip Alex Fai (費鴻泰) that Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) should be executed for an increase in domestic COVID-19 cases. Chen heads the Central Epidemic Command Center. Lu at a question-and-answer session at the Tainan City Council said that a lapse in disease prevention measures at China Airlines, which has led to a cluster infection, could have been controlled. However, as the airline’s pilots were allowed a shortened quarantine period of three days and were placed
‘COLD ATTITUDE’: The man claimed that his wife of nearly 50 years had not cooked or done any laundry for 40 years and that she refused to bathe A court last month rejected a man’s application for a divorce over lack of evidence that his wife “would rather feed stray dogs” than her husband. The 90-year-old man, surnamed Chao (趙), filed for divorce from his wife of nearly 50 years, surnamed Tung (董), saying that she had not cooked or done any laundry for 40 years. “Every morning my wife goes to Gaoping Bridge to feed stray dogs and does not come home until late,” Chao said. “I am 90 and I need to be taken care of,” he said, complaining of his wife’s “cold attitude” toward him. Chao also complained in
The Taipei City Government yesterday officially launched the “YouBike 2.0” system, an upgraded version of the bicycle rental service, saying that it aims to expand the service to more than 1,200 stations throughout the city. The system yesterday activated 160 new stations, in addition to 103 stations in the Gongguan (公館) shopping area near the National Taiwan University campus. A trial run of YouBike2.0 was launched there in January last year. The Taipei Department of Transportation said that bicycles of the upgraded system feature solar panels and card censors, which allow users to rent them by swiping their EasyCard or scanning a QR
DATA-DRIVEN: The dedicated department used big data to find sexual harassment hot spots on the Mass Rapid Transit system to take measures against perpetrators Most incidents of sexual harassment and secret photography in Taipei’s MRT metropolitan railway system over the past five years occurred at three stations, the Rapid Transit Division of the Taipei City Police Department said in a statement yesterday. Most incidents were recorded at Zhongxiao-Fuxing MRT Station, followed by Taipei Main and Zhongxiao-Dunhua MRT stations, the department said, adding that the results were obtained through big data analysis. The system, which serves Taipei and New Taipei City, handles about 2.2 million passengers per day, and most cases of secret photography and sexual harassment — usually involving touching a victims buttocks or chest
RSS