The Council of Agriculture (COA) is seeking to reduce the proportion of produce and fishery products exported to China to less than 2 percent, to reduce the anticipated effects of Chinese bans on Taiwanese goods, a source said on Sunday.
China has banned imports of Taiwanese groupers, beltfish, pineapples, citrus fruits and various processed foods and other items over the past year, and more bans are expected, the source said.
The council had already begun shifting exports to the US, Japan and Southeast Asian countries, and would continue to do so, the source said, adding that the Ministry of Economic Affairs was also working on the issue.
Photo: Yang Yuan-ting, Taipei Times
The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed by Taiwan and China in June 2010 in Chongqing, China, laid out 539 items that Taiwan could export to China tariff-free.
However, 18 of those items are now banned from being imported into China, the source said.
“We are not ruling out that China might simply scrap the ECFA to put further pressure on the Democratic Progressive Party,” the source said.
Only the fisheries and agricultural industries are currently affected by the bans, but if the ECFA is scrapped it would impact industries including textiles, machinery, petrochemicals, automotive, dyes, fiberglass, rubber tires and others, the source said.
Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said it was unlikely that China would scrap the agreement.
The ECFA “early harvest” list of items that fall under tariff concessions mostly includes electronics, machinery and agricultural products, and China relies on the electronic items on the list, he said, adding that it would harm China to give up on the agreement.
In turn, Taiwan relies on China for manufacturing, and benefits from selling finished and semi-finished products to the Chinese market, he added.
Many Taiwanese businesses have already begun shifting manufacturing to Vietnam, and if tariffs are reinstated on ECFA items, the effects on Taiwan would not be too great, he said.
“China has vast land and abundant resources, and there is no shortage of fruit and fishery products there. The CCP [Chinese Communist Party] used the ECFA to benefit Taiwan as a united front tactic,” he said.
“When the CCP cuts off the money-making channel of Taiwanese farmers, it can create a crisis. Therefore, dependence on the Chinese market for agricultural products must be reduced,” he added.
Chen said that more economic sanctions are possible at any time with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) entering his third term, adding that the government should accelerate the promotion of its New Southbound Policy to encourage the transfer of manufacturing to India, Vietnam and Thailand.
It should also push a transition toward smart industries that create high added value, he said.
Taiwan should also strive to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, deepen economic and trade relations with the US through the Taiwan-US Initiative on 21st-Century Trade, and strive for a Taiwan-US free-trade agreement, he said.
A tropical depression east of China’s Hainan Province is poised to strengthen into the second tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The storm, which could be upgraded into a tropical storm before noon today, would be named Maliksi, meaning “brisk” in Filipino. As of 2pm, the tropical depression was moving northwest at 12kph, CWA data showed. The moisture the storm carries is likely to move east and merge with a weather front that is closing in on Taiwan, bringing rain over the weekend, CWA forecaster Huang En-hung (黃恩鴻) said. Tropical Storm Ewiniar is also nearby, although it would
The Ministry of Agriculture yesterday urged people not to buy zongzi (粽子, glutinous rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves) or pork products from other countries ahead of next week’s Dragon Boat Festival, or risk a fine of NT$200,000 (US$6,214). Local Chinese-language media outlets on Sunday reported that an Indonesian traveler was fined NT$200,000 upon their arrival in Taiwan from Hong Kong on April 30 for attempting to take their in-flight meal, which contained pork, through customs. The traveler had packed their in-flight meal, which included roasted pork and chicken, in a container to take through customs, which is against regulations, the reports
The government has reduced the proportion of runaway Southeast Asian tourists from group tours to nine in 10,000 by better managing which travel agencies are used, the Tourism Administration said. The Project for Simplifying Visa Regulations for High-end Group Tourists from Southeast Asian Countries, also known as the Kuan Hung Pilot Project (觀宏專案), was launched in 2015 to attract tourists from Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam in line with the government’s New Southbound Policy. Tourists from these countries can visit Taiwan on an electronic visa, which they obtain by participating in group tours organized by travel agencies designated by
Singer and actor Aaron Yan (炎亞綸) was given a seven-month suspended prison sentence yesterday for filming and leaking intimate videos of a minor in 2017 and 2018. In its ruling, the Shilin District Court said that Yan, 39, had recorded the videos of him having sex with a minor with the intention of sharing them. The court handed down a seven-month prison sentence, which was suspended for three years and can be commuted to a fine, after Yan reached a settlement in March with the accuser, an Internet personality named Raku (耀樂), the ruling said. The amount of the settlement was not disclosed,