Chinese companies have over the past five years obtained exclusive distribution rights in Taiwan for 29 percent of new pharmaceuticals, the Legislative Yuan said, urging the government to intervene, as it said the issue extends far beyond Chinese agency over the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
Right of agency for drug distribution has received widespread attention this year, after Germany’s BioNTech inked a deal with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group (上海復星醫藥集團) to develop and distribute its COVID-19 vaccine in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Macau.
This has complicated Taipei’s efforts to procure the vaccine.
Private entities have stepped in to purchase doses to donate to the government, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Foundation and the Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密)-affiliated Yonglin Foundation.
In a report dated Monday, the Legislative Yuan’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Bureau decried the arrangement as unreasonable.
“Requiring South Korea to purchase vaccines through a North Korean distributor or Israel to go through a Palestinian firm would be preposterous,” the report said.
Granting exclusive distribution rights in a nation to its political and military adversary is ethically problematic, it said.
Due to the antagonism and mutual distrust between the two nations, it is highly unlikely that they would complete a contract and instead use it as a tool for political manipulation, it added.
This would further hinder transactions and jeopardize the right to healthcare of the “represented country,” the report added.
Right of agency over pharmaceuticals has long been an issue, the bureau said.
Over the past five years, Chinese firms have obtained exclusive distribution rights to Taiwan for 29 percent of new pharmaceuticals, posing an increasingly serious problem that cannot be ignored, it said.
The bureau recommended that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and national security agencies intervene in China’s attempts to monopolize Taiwan’s pharmaceutical market.
Using appropriate channels, officials should persuade multinationals to avoid signing right-of-agency contracts for Taiwan with Chinese distributors, thereby preventing human rights, moral and political controversies, it said.
All import licensing procedures should follow WTO protocols, as Taiwan, Germany and China are all members of the global trade body, the report added, recommending that the Ministry of Economic Affairs seek a decision from the WTO or another international economic forum to ensure fair and timely access to vaccines worldwide.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS