The Honduran government is seeking to re-engage with the Taiwanese market, Honduran Secretary of Foreign Affairs Enrique Reina said on Monday, as one of the Central American nation’s major exports has plummeted since it cut ties with Taiwan.
Honduras severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan in March 2023 in favor of Beijing.
Honduras hoped to benefit from a free-trade agreement with China, but found that Beijing instead dumped goods into Honduras, resulting in a serious bilateral trade imbalance, reports have said.
Photo: Reuters
In an exclusive interview with the Honduran media Radio America, Reina said that due to the delay in opening the Chinese market, Honduras is hoping to re-enter the Taiwanese market to save its white shrimp industry.
After losing the Taiwanese market, the Honduran white shrimp industry, a major export for the Central American nation, is on the verge of collapse, the report said.
Honduras is also hoping to cooperate with South Korea to obtain the appropriate import health permits, Reina said.
Before March 2023, Honduras and Taiwan had more than 80 years of diplomatic relations.
Through military, educational and economic cooperation, Taiwan not only supported Honduran agriculture and offered technological assistance, but was also the primary market for Honduran white shrimp, the report said.
In 2022, nearly 40 percent of Honduran white shrimp exports went to Taiwan, it said.
According to data from National Association of Honduran Aquaculturists (ANDAH), just two years after Honduras cut ties with Taiwan, its white shrimp exports have plummeted 67 percent, leaving more than 14,000 workers unemployed.
According to the report, China promised to purchase large amounts of Honduran white shrimp when the two countries established diplomatic relations, but two years later, that promise is yet to be fulfilled.
When Chinese businesses visited Honduras in June last year to inspect shrimp farms, they announced they would purchase 250 containers of white shrimp, the report said.
However, they only purchased one container in the end, causing ANDAH to call China “rude and disgusting,” it said.
According to data from the Central Bank of Honduras, Honduran exports to China last year amounted to US$35.9 million, while Chinese exports to Honduras increased to US$2.55 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of more than US$2.5 billion, Honduran newspaper La Prensa reported.
Additional reporting by CNA
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
RSS