Promoting agricultural cooperation

　　Taiwan holds bilateral agricultural cooperation meetings with Australia, the EU, France, Hungary, Indonesia, Japan, and Vietnam, and pro-actively promotes agricultural cooperation, industry exchanges, and development of marketing channels. We also hold bilateral economic and trade consultative conferences to eradicate non-tariff barriers to trade faced by Taiwan’s agriproduct exports. For example, Taiwan recently signed the “Administrative Arrangement on Plant Variety Rights” with the European Union, which should promote exports of Phalaenopsis orchids and Doritis orchids from Taiwan to the EU. We also signed, with Australia, the “Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation in a Project for Trial Cultivation of Taiwan Lychee Varieties in Australia,” with the aim at extending the time period each year for supplying lychee to develop overseas markets.

　　In terms of cooperation in the fisheries industry, Taiwan works with other countries to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities, and promotes conservation management of fisheries resources to ensure the sustainability of oceanic resources. Taiwan has also signed fisheries cooperation agreements with countries that include Nauru, Tuvalu, and the Marshall Islands, to effectively control the movements of our country’s fishing vessels and ensure the stable operation of our businesses.