Representatives of traditional Chinese and Western pharmaceutical companies and Chinese traditional doctors yesterday held a news conference in front of the Legislative Yuan to express their opposition to restarting the cross-strait service trade agreement.
National Union of Chinese Medical Doctors’ Association secretary-general Chen Po-yuan (陳博淵) said that the agreement would be a “poison” to the industry and is “rotten to the core,” adding that they hoped the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) could understand the industry’s stance on the matter.
Taiwan-trained traditional Chinese medicine doctors of excellent quality could be drawn to practice in China and vice versa, which could diminish the quality of medical services in Taiwan, he said.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
If approved, the agreement would diminish the quality of medical services and harm people’s health, he added.
Both the KMT and the TPP presidential candidates, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) and former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) respectively, have proposed restarting talks on the agreement, which failed to be passed after sparking an occupation of the Legislative Yuan by student-led Sunflower movement protesters from 9pm on March 18, 2014, to April 10 at 6pm.
Commenting on the lack of members of political parties at the protest, Chen said he did not know if the caucuses understood what the agreement’s impact on the traditional medicine sector would be.
Traditional medicine pharmaceutical sector representative Hsiao Hung-chih (蕭宏誌) said the pact, if approved, would significantly affect Taiwan’s traditional Chinese medicine supply chain, and eat into an already withering market and number of employees in the industry.
Representatives of the pharmaceutical sector manufacturing Western medicine also said their industry would be greatly affected, as low-priced Chinese products would present intense competition and Chinese-funded companies would drain Taiwan of its talent and technologies.
Industry representatives said that low-priced, low-quality pharmaceutical goods manufactured by Chinese companies — but bearing the “made in Taiwan” hallmark — would significantly damage Taiwan’s standing in the pharmaceutical industry.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) said that his party has heard the voice of the people and “would not allow” the agreement to be approved.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiang Yung-chang (江永昌) said the party stands with the industry, as China is already the primary source of traditional Chinese medicine reagents and materials.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
RSS