A group of local and international labor rights experts yesterday called on the government to seize the opportunity to enhance labor rights protections, especially for migrant workers, as a new round of trade talks with the US is set to begin next week.
Taipei and Washington on Friday announced that a new round of in-person negotiations over the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade is to take place from today to Friday in Taipei.
The talks would focus on bilateral cooperation in fields such as labor, environmental protection and agriculture, the two governments said.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
Speaking in a Taipei seminar, Global Labor Justice legal director Allison Gill said the negations would provide a great opportunity to “boost its [Taiwan’s] international reputation and guarantee the labor rights for all fishers and its distant-water fishing industry.”
Although Taipei has taken steps including updating its fisheries and human rights action plans, to better protect fishers, since 2019, Washington has repeatedly identified Taiwan’s distant-water fishing industry as having a high risk of forced labor.
The US Department of Labor lists fish exported by Taiwan to be produced with child or forced labor. The department in last year’s Trafficking in Persons Report described Taiwan’s distant-water fishing sector as being highly vulnerable to forced labor.
Global Labor Justice conducted its own research and interviews with migrant fishers on Taiwan-flagged vessels, Gill said.
“Overall, what we found is, rather than being an isolated problem caused by a few bad actors, slavery is in fact a widespread problem in the fishing industry, fueled by structural drivers. These require a structural solution,” she said.
Although these exposures create a moment of risk for the nation’s seafood industry, it would also create an opportunity for the government and industry to “implement best practices to protect labor rights and demonstrate their global leadership,” said the US expert, who participated in the Taipei seminar remotely.
Wi-Fi access to all crew on Taiwanese distant-water fishing vessels should be included in the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade, the organization said.
Wi-Fi access is important because it would enable migrant fishers to “exercise their fundamental freedom of association,” Gill said.
“Wi-Fi allows fishers to contact their labor unions, their advocacy organizations, their families, government agencies, and hotlines. It is the only means when they are at sea for them truly to be able to associate with each other,” she said.
“Now is the right time for Taiwan to play a leading role in the global seafood industry by agreeing to mandate Wi-Fi access for all crew on board its distant-water fishing vessels as part of the 21st Century Trade Initiative agreement,” she said.
Meanwhile, labor activist Chou Yu-hsuan (周于萱) in the seminar said that the trade talks would provide a chance for Taiwan to catch up with international laws and standards concerning labor rights.
Aside from including labor protection provisions, local environmental groups also wanted to add clauses on environmental issues, said Chou, the deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Federation of Financial Unions.
Yesterday’s seminar was organized by the Taiwan-US Trade Citizen Watch Alliance, which consists of dozens of local labor rights, environmental and business groups.
The US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade was launched in 2022 under the auspices of the American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US on behalf of both governments.
In June last year, the two sides signed the first pact under the initiative, agreeing on customs administration and trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, domestic regulation of services, anti-corruption practices, and matters relating to small and medium-sized enterprises.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its