Two members of the US Congress wrote a letter to US Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins on Wednesday last week encouraging her to personally visit Taiwan on her upcoming trade visit to Asia.
The letter, signed by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Andy Ogles, said the visit would promote Taiwan’s purchase of more US agricultural goods and cement the friendship between the two nations.
On March 28, Rollins announced detailed plans for high-level trade visits to Asia, South America, Africa, Europe and the Caribbean.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The letter called for Rollins to “consider personally including it [Taiwan] in [her] travel plans.”
As the US’ seventh-largest trading partner and 14th overall richest country in the world as of last year, Taiwan is “an ideal market for increased US farm exports,” the letter said.
Taiwan already buys large amounts of US wheat, soybeans and corn, and has shown interest in expanding US agricultural purchases further, it said.
As such, Tiffany and Ogles “believe including Taiwan in [Rollins’] travel itinerary would help maximize the benefits the Taiwanese market holds for US farmers and ranchers,” they wrote.
The letter further outlines the Taiwan Relations Act and Taiwan Travel Act as cornerstones of US-Taiwan cooperation, which encourage “high-level meetings between senior US and Taiwanese officials.”
Such a visit would demonstrate the US’ and Taiwan’s “shared commitment to prosperity and security,” the letter said.
“A bilateral meeting with counterparts in Taiwan would help cement this friendship while maximizing tangible benefits for America’s hardworking farm families,” it said.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
RSS