The government last week held two rounds of seminars in Canada as part of its bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday.
The seminars on Wednesday and Friday last week in Calgary and Vancouver respectively were the first such CPTPP promotional events held in Canada outside the capital, Ottawa, Department of International Cooperation and Economic Affairs Director-General Vivian Lien (連玉蘋) said.
Canada is the CPTPP commission chair this year.
Photo: Reuters
The Canadian Global Affairs Institute hosted the Calgary event, titled “Canada-Taiwan Economic Cooperation: Opportunities for Western Canada,” which was co-organized by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada, Lien said.
Ken Hardie, chair of the Canada-China Relations Special Committee of the Canadian House of Commons, and Christy Clark, former premier of British Columbia, said that Taiwan was a reliable partner, pointing out its adherence to high trade standards during the Calgary event, a Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada statement said.
The second seminar, “Bridging Economies: Exploring Canadian - Taiwanese Trade Ventures,” was hosted by the Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, Lien said.
She said that Taiwan would continue to pitch to every CPTPP member that its accession would enhance supply chain resilience and benefit global economic security.
Lien has repeatedly said that the government believes this year could be crucial for Taiwan’s bid because Canada is commission chair of the CPTPP.
That offers a “window of opportunity” for Taipei’s potential accession to the trade bloc because of the democratic values shared by Canada and Taiwan, and their robust trade and economic ties, she said.
All decisions by the commission or the accession working group are made by consensus among CPTPP members, as per the bloc’s accession process rules.
Taiwan officially applied to join the CPTPP on Sept. 22, 2021, less than a week after China, but Taipei has made little headway on its bid since then.
The CPTPP, which grew out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership that the US left in January 2017, is one of the world’s biggest trade blocs, representing a market of 500 million people and accounting for 13.5 percent of global trade.
Its 11 signatories are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
The UK signed the trade agreement on July 16 last year, and is expected to formally join by the end of this year.
Ecuador, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Ukraine have also applied to join the trade bloc.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS