Imports of white shrimp from Belize are expected to start this year, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The initiative is part of efforts to promote mutual benefit and prosperity with diplomatic allies, Latin American and Caribbean Affairs Department Director-General Cheng Li-cheng (鄭力城) said.
The government of Belize had expressed interest in exporting white shrimp to Taiwan and with assistance from Taiwan’s embassy in Belize, it has completed the necessary application procedures under Taiwan’s food import inspection system, Cheng said.
Photo: AFP
The embassy also asked the Belizean government to submit a seafood export checklist to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which reviewed it and found it complied with its standards, he said.
Asked about the timeline for shrimp imports, Cheng said that the ministry is awaiting final confirmation from the FDA.
As Taiwan and Belize have an economic cooperation agreement, the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Finance would begin tariff negotiations once safety standards are verified, he said.
“I believe there will be concrete results this year,” he added.
Meanwhile, Taiwan last year was the second-largest beef export market for Paraguay after the nation began importing beef from the South American ally in 2022 following implementation of the Taiwan-Paraguay Agreement on Economic Cooperation in 2018, Cheng said.
In the first quarter of this year, Taiwan imported 15,000 tonnes of beef from Paraguay — a 23 percent increase compared with the same period last year, he said.
Moreover, Taiwan has consistently remained Paraguay’s largest pork export market, he added.
In other news, the Central America Trade Office in March invited 13 Taiwanese companies to attend a trade fair in Guatemala, he said.
As a result, the companies are expected to import about 720 tonnes of green coffee beans — a record, Cheng said.
“Taiwanese consume about 8 million cups of coffee per day. Guatemala is a key source of specialty coffee, and its beans are well-liked and appreciated by Taiwanese consumers,” he said.
Asked about the Taiwanese fishing vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) being boarded and seized by the Philippine Coast Guard on Monday morning, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said that the ministry was informed of the incident by the Fisheries Agency and the Coast Guard Administration that morning.
Upon receiving the report, it immediately expressed grave concern to the Manila Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei and urged the Philippine government to release the vessel as soon as possible, Hsiao said.
The ministry also instructed the nation’s representative office in the Philippines to handle the case, he said.
The vessel was released on Monday afternoon, he added.
Separately, the foreign ministry expressed regret over Nagasaki’s decision not to invite Taiwan to participate in a memorial marking the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the city.
Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki on Friday said that Taiwan would not be invited to this year’s event marking the 80th anniversary of the atomic bombing on Aug. 9, as invitations are only extended to countries with diplomatic relations with Japan.
In contrast, Hiroshima, which normally would not invite Taiwan to its Aug. 6 peace memorial ceremony, has reportedly notified Taipei about this year’s event, the Asahi Shimbun reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources.
Hsiao said that while Taiwan had not officially received an invitation to the Hiroshima event, it was looking forward to attending.
As this year marks the 80th anniversary of the bombing, the city has decided there is no reason to exclude Taiwan, as the event is meant to promote the “spirit of Hiroshima” — a wish for coexistence and the prosperity of humankind, sources told Japanese media.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.