President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said the trilateral negotiations on free-trade agreements (FTA) between China, South Korea and Japan has put great pressure on Taiwan, and that he expects the nation to join the potential new free-trade zone in Northeast Asia.
“Taiwan should not be absent from the new free-trade zone in Northeast Asia, and I believe we would play an important and constructive role as we did in the regional aviation circle,” Ma said at the Presidential Office.
Ma made the remarks during a meeting with Japan’s top representative to Taiwan, Sumio Tarui. Speaking at the meeting, Ma said relations between Taiwan and Japan were at their best in more than four decades and that he expected bilateral trade to thrive over the next four years.
Citing his administration’s efforts to join the negotiations and begin direct flights from Taipei International Airport (Songshan) to Toykyo’s Haneda International Airport, Gimpo International Airport in Seoul and Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai, Ma expected the nation to facilitate trade negotiations with major partners and to be part of the regional economic integration in Northeast Asia.
“Japan is the second-largest trade partner of Taiwan, and Taiwan is the fourth-largest trade partner of Japan. With such a close trade relationship, I expect the two sides to further explore negotiations on economic cooperation and I hope Japan will seriously consider signing an FTA with Taiwan,” Ma said.
The pressure on Taiwan to sign FTAs or economic pacts with major trade partners has become heavier, especially since Japan, China and South Korea agreed to start official negotiations on a trilateral free-trade pact some time this year, he said.
He also reiterated his hope of joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement within eight years and said he expected to resume negotiations on the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) with the US soon, while pledging to complete follow-up negotiations under the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
President William Lai (賴清德) should protect Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), and stop supporting domestic strife and discord, former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) wrote on Facebook yesterday. US President Donald Trump and TSMC on Monday jointly announced that the company would invest an additional US$100 billion over the next few years to expand its semiconductor manufacturing operations in the US. The TSMC plans have promoted concern in Taiwan that it would effectively lead to the chipmaking giant becoming Americanized. The Lai administration lacks tangible policies to address concerns that Taiwan might follow in Ukraine’s footsteps, Ma wrote. Instead, it seems to think it could
A man in Tainan has been cleared on charges of public insult after giving the middle finger during a road rage incident, as judges deemed the gesture was made “briefly to express negative feelings.” In last week’s ruling at the High Court’s Tainan branch, judges acquitted a driver, surnamed Cheng (程), for an incident along Tainan’s Nanmen Road in September 2023, when Cheng had spotted a place to park his car in an adjacent lane. Cheng slowed down his vehicle to go into reverse, to back into the parking spot, but the car behind followed too closely, as its driver thought Cheng
DEFENSE: The purpose of the exercises is to identify strategies for the government to control risks during tensions, prevent war and bolster national resilience A tabletop exercise series has begun simulating possible scenarios if the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched a war against Taiwan in the guise of a military exercise. The exercise series is jointly organized by National Chengchi University’s Institute of International Relations, Taiwan Center for Security Studies and Asia-Pacific Policy Research Association. Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chen Yeong-kang (陳永康), former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director William Stanton and Taiwan Center for Security Studies director Liu Fu-kuo (劉復國) attended the event in Taipei yesterday. Scenarios that would be simulated include changing political circumstances in the US during US President Donald Trump’s tenure
RSS