The Legislative Yuan on Friday passed amendments to a bill that will allow the tariff-free importation of 46 different items from the Kingdom of Eswatini, including nuts and dried fruits, into Taiwan.
The Cabinet on Sept. 21 approved the amendments to the Customs Import Tariff proposed by the Ministry of Finance (MOF), and the Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee completed its review on Oct. 18.
Under the bill’s provisions, the tariff waiver is to take effect 30 days after the two countries have completed their respective internal legal procedures.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The passage of the amendments was part of a commitment to enhance bilateral trade and ties under an economic cooperation agreement Taiwan and Eswatini, the nation’s only ally in Africa, signed in December 2018.
At a legislative committee hearing, Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) said the 46 Eswatini products to receive tariff-free treatment include nuts, dried fruits, molasses, brewed drinks, dried onions, vegetable juices, and textile and garments.
In a report recently presented to the committee, the Ministry of Agriculture, which worked with the MOF in preparing the amendments, told lawmakers that the tariff waiver would not have a negative impact on Taiwan’s agricultural sector.
According to the latest statistics the International Trade Administration published in February, bilateral trade between Taiwan and Eswatini totaled US$16.16 million last year, a decrease of 9 percent from US$17.96 million in 2021.
Eswatini’s main exports to Taiwan include ethyl alcohol, sauces, grapefruit, machinery parts, cotton yarn and metal jewelry, while Taiwan’s main exports to Eswatini consist of rice, printing machinery, filament yarn, dyeing machines, slide fasteners and garments.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS