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.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
1.4nm WAFERS: While TSMC is gearing up to expand its overseas production, it would also continue to invest in Taiwan, company chairman and CEO C.C. Wei said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) has applied for permission to construct a new plant in the Central Taiwan Science Park (中部科學園區), which it would use for the production of new high-speed wafers, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council, which supervises three major science parks in Taiwan, confirmed that the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau had received an application on Friday from TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, to commence work on the new A14 fab. A14 technology, a 1.4 nanometer (nm) process, is designed to drive artificial intelligence transformation by enabling faster computing and greater power
RSS