DPP Legislator Tsai Chi-fang (
Tsai told a press conference that attempts to register the Taiwan Beer and Kinmen Kaoliang brands in China have reportedly been blocked by Beijing on the grounds that geographical names may not be part of trademark registrations.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"It is outrageous that unfair trade practices still exists in the alcohol trade across the Taiwan Strait now that both sides have been admitted to the WTO and Taiwan businessmen have made huge investments on the mainland," Tsai said.
He said the entry of Tsing Tao and Yanjing beer to the local market resulted in an 8-percent decrease in beer sales for the state-owned Taiwan Tobacco and Liquor Co's (TTL) last year.
Tsai said both the US and the EU have approved TTL's applications to market its beer under the "Taiwan Beer" label in those markets.
"It's unreasonable that China still does not allow us to sell Taiwan beer in its market," Tsai said.
A TTL executive told reporters that the company first tried to register its "Taiwan Beer" trademark with Chinese authorities in 1998 and then again in 2000, but both applications were rejected.
He said the company was later given approval to market the beer under the name "TTL Beer. "
The official said the company filed another application for a "Taiwan Beer" trademark last year following China and Taiwan's accession to the WTO.The Kinmen Liquor Co has reportedly encountered similar problems in trying to sell its Kinmen Kaoliang on the Chinese market because it cannot get its trademark registered.
Media reports say that TTL and Kinmen Liquor will ask the government to start negotiations with China over the trademark restrictions under the WTO framework.
Kinmen Liquor is reportedly resisting the opening of Taiwan's market to Chinese liquor products until the problem is resolved.
Media reports also note that TTL's Long Life cigarette brand was registered in China by Xunyang Tobacco and Liquor Group a few years ago, which would mean the company cannot market its cigarettes under that name in China.
Xunyang is reportedly asking for NT$30 million to release the rights to the "Long Life" name.
However, TTL markets China's Zhonghua brand cigarettes locally.
Taiwan Tobacco is reportedly negotiating with the Chinese representatives of Zhonghua cigarettes and Xunyang Tobacco to try to arrange an exchange of trademark registrations.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS