The first-ever labor affairs consultation meeting between Taiwan and the EU last week represents a milestone in bilateral cooperation, Deputy Minister of Labor Lin San-quei (林三貴) said yesterday.
Lin, who led the Taiwanese delegation to the meeting in Brussels on Thursday last week, said that the nation and the bloc have had good exchanges on a wide range of labor affairs-related topics through existing channels, while top EU labor affairs officials have visited Taiwan several times.
“This year, the first-ever labor affairs consultation meeting represented the beginning of a regular exchange mechanism to facilitate future cooperation between the two sides,” Lin said.
Photo: CNA, courtesy of the Ministry of Labor
Lin first talked with European Commission Deputy Director-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Adriana Sukova for almost one hour.
Lin said Sukova paid close attention to Taiwan’s experience in executing labor policies and their success, and expressed hope that at the next meeting they would discuss Taiwanese policies to boost the rights of immigrant workers and fishery workers.
After the talks between Lin and Sukova, the meeting focused on how the European Globalization Adaptation Fund has helped workers deal with a fast-changing labor market and how the European Social Fund has helped disadvantaged workers land jobs, Lin said.
The delegation also shared Taiwan’s knowledge of the wider labor market in Asia, having invested in China and Southeast Asian nations for many years, Lin added.
The two sides also discussed youth unemployment and the impact of economic globalization and digitalization on workers, as well as cross-border social security and employment services for workers, he said.
“The consultation meeting gave EU officials a better understanding as to the value of such a view-exchange mechanism with Taiwan,” Lin said.
While pushing for further cooperation with the EU, Lin said he hoped the second consultation meeting in Taipei next year would proceed just as smoothly.
Lin also met Laszlo Andor, a former commissioner for employment, social affairs and inclusion, and Fons Leroy, managing director of the Vlaamse Dienst voor Arbeidsbemiddeling en Beroepsopleiding (the Flemish public employment service), to exchange views and ideas.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
RSS