No loans were pledged to Nicaragua in the run-up to the Central American nation’s election on Nov. 7, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday following the cessation of bilateral ties.
The ministry made the comment after the London-based Financial Times cited reports that said Taipei had agreed to provide a new loan to Nicaragua ahead of the election, which saw Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega re-elected amid accusations by the US of voting irregularities.
Taiwanese banks refused to extend a loan pledged by Taiwanese authorities for fear of contravening US sanctions on Nicaragua, which were extended in the aftermath of Ortega’s re-election, the Financial Times reported.
Photo: Sarah Wu, Reuters
Taiwan in February 2019 had agreed to provide a loan of US$100 million to its former ally, but the funds were to help Nicaragua rebuild its infrastructure in the wake of social unrest beginning in 2018 sparked by opposition to Ortega’s continued rule, the ministry said.
The bank it partnered with ultimately never provided the loan, due to “allocation issues,” it said without elaborating.
The loan was for “humanitarian assistance” and was not related in any way to last month’s disputed presidential election, the ministry said.
The US imposed a series of sanctions on Nicaraguan officials in 2018 due to what it described as human rights abuses and rampant corruption in the country under Ortega’s government.
Washington rolled out new sanctions on Nov. 15, denouncing Ortega’s re-election a week prior as a “sham” and saying that the Nicaraguan government was suppressing dissent and jailing opposition leaders.
In other news, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said that a free-trade agreement between Taiwan and Nicaragua remains in effect, despite the severing of formal diplomatic ties.
The pact was signed on June 16, 2006, and took effect on Jan. 1, 2008.
Either party can withdraw from the agreement with the exit taking effect 180 days after notification has been submitted, the economic ministry said.
Nicaragua has not provided such notification, so the pact remains in effect, it said.
Whether Managua would make a move on the deal is unclear, but Taiwan’s free-trade deal with El Salvador and Honduras is still in place, even though El Salvador broke diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 2018.
Even if Nicaragua were to end the agreement, it would have little effect on Taiwan’s foreign trade, the economic ministry said.
Taiwan’s exports to Nicaragua last year totaled US$22.94 million, or 0.01 percent of overall exports, while it imported US$143.56 million in goods from the Central American country, it said.
Taiwanese businesses that have invested in Nicaragua should also not be affected by the change in diplomatic status, given that they are registered as local businesses, it said.
Most Taiwanese businesses in Nicaragua are in the textile and tourism sectors, it said.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS