A group of legislators departed for Canada on Monday evening in a bid to gain support for Taiwan’s application to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Taiwan officially applied to join the CPTPP on Sept. 22 last year, after which a parliamentary friendship group was established to advocate for the bid.
The group has so far sent four letters to leaders and officials of the CPTPP’s member states, including Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍), President of the Peruvian Congress Maricarmen Alva, as well as the speakers of the Canadian Houses of Parliament.
While the legislature is in recess, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉), who heads the group, is making the trip with DPP legislators Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) and Chung Chia-pin (鍾佳濱).
They plan to return on Wednesday next week.
Chiu told reporters that although no legislators have visited Canada in recent years, “now is a good time, as Canada is getting closer to Taiwan,” while its relationship with China is tense.
At the invitation of Shen Jung-chin (沈榮欽), an associate professor at the School of Administrative Studies at York University, Canada, they are to discuss the CPTPP and a foreign investment promotion and protection arrangement (FIPA) during the trip, he said.
Taiwan and Canada began “exploratory discussions” on signing a FIPA to enhance two-way investment and economic relations in January, he said, adding that the arrangement can be “the bridge that leads to the CPTPP.”
The three are also to visit Canadian members of parliament from several parties, including Taiwan’s long-standing supporters Michael Cooper and Judy Sgro, chair of the Canada Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group, he said.
They plan to discuss ways to promote Taiwan’s bid to join the CPTPP with Taiwanese individuals and business groups in Canada, as well as meet Jeffrey Reeves, vice president of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, he added.
Meanwhile, DPP legislators Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文), Mark Ho (何志偉), Michelle Lin (林楚茵), Lin Ching-yi (林靜儀), Chang Hung-lu (張宏陸) and Chang Liao Wan-chien (張廖萬堅) are to visit Japan from Thursday next week to Aug. 10.
They are to pay their respects to former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who was assassinated during a campaign speech earlier this month, and to discuss Taiwan’s application to join the CPTPP with Japanese lawmakers.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS