Source · Select Committees · Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 47
47
Deferred
Paragraph: 151
Support inward and outward visits by trade, science, and education ministers with Taiwan.
Conclusion
The UK Government should support visits by trade, science and education ministers both inward and outward with Taiwan.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response discusses the BBC World Service and its operational independence, which is unrelated to the recommendation for supporting ministerial visits with Taiwan.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
151
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
The Government agrees with the importance of visits as part of these longstanding areas of cooperation between the UK and Taiwan and already supports a wide range of exchanges and visits, including on trade, science and educational issues. The recent inward visits of Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s Minister for Digital Affairs and Wu Tsung-tsong, Minister of the National Science and Technology Council of Taiwan and Deputy Minister of Education, Mon-Chi Lio demonstrate this commitment. The UK and Taiwan have a long-standing trade relationship with annual ministerial trade talks held since 1991; in November 2022, then Minister of State for International Trade, Greg Hands, visited Taiwan for the talks and the latest iteration took place on 6 November 2023 in London. On 8 November 2023, British Representative John Dennis and Taipei Representative Kelly Hsieh signed an Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP) Arrangement which sets out the UK’s and Taiwan’s priorities for future ETP discussions under three key areas: two-way investment; digital trade; and energy and net zero. The Government agrees with the importance of visits to support these longstanding areas of cooperation between the UK and Taiwan.
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