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As the world’s 18th largest trading nation, Taiwan is currently institutionalizing trade relations with mainland China (its largest trading partner), while simultaneously making efforts to pursue regional, bilateral trade agreements. For example, on July 10th 2013, Taiwan and New Zealand signed an economic cooperation agreement (ANZTEC), Taiwan’s first free trade deal with a developed country. Later that year on November 7th 2013, Taiwan and Singapore signed an economic partnership agreement (ASTEP) . We are also in contact with other potential partners in Asia and Europe in the hope of concluding more such accords.

In addition to bilateral negotiations, we must take part in regional arrangements. Given that Taiwan’s trade with the 12 members of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) in 2013 accounted for 34% of Taiwan’s total external trade, we believe Taiwan’s membership in the TPP would definitely be beneficial not only for Taiwan , but also for all TPP member states.

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Taiwan’s Eco Awareness:

Taiwan Ecological and Environmental Documentary

Film Series

In order to promote environmental protection and ecological awareness, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York (TECO-NY) will hold a film series featuring six new ecological and environmental documentaries from Taiwan from June 1st-22nd, 2012.

These films highlight some recent initiatives in Taiwan towards making a more sustainable and environmentally friendly society. Megastructures: EcoARK (6/1 18:30 p.m.), produced in cooperation with National Geographic Channels, chronicles the construction of the spectacular green exposition hall for the 2011 Taipei International Floral Expo using 1.5 million recycled PET bottles. The project was among 12 finalists for the Wall Street Journal’s 2011 Asia Innovation Awards. Trash to Treasure and Super Solar Yacht (6/8 18:30 p.m.), both also co-produced with National Geographic Channels, depict how discarded materials are transformed into valuable products, and how Taiwan produced the first solar powered luxury yacht. Birds Without Borders (6/15 18:30 p.m.), which won the Earth Vision Tokyo Global Environmental Film Festival’s Special Prize for Biodiversity and the WorldFest Houston International Film Festival’s Gold Remi award, chronicles the migration of the endangered black-faced spoonbill and the efforts of a group of scientists and conservationists to protect their natural habitat. Eco Taiwan: Building Magic and Species Wars (6/22 18:30 p.m.), two films produced in cooperation with the Discovery Channel, show how innovative and passionate individuals in Taiwan have committed themselves to designing inexpensive, low-tech, low emission buildings and to protecting endangered species. Attached, please find a detailed synopses and screening schedule for all of the quality films in the series.

Drawings to win recycled products designed and made in Taiwan will be held after each screening. Audience members can win slick iPhone cases and elegant wine carriers! Prizes will also include five one-year subscriptions to Taiwan’s reputable bilingual publication, Panorama Magazine. Moreover, unique eco-friendly shopping bags made in Taiwan will be given to the first 15 attendees at each screening.
Join us to help protect the environment!
1 E. 42nd Street, New York, NY 10017

About Theresa Lin

Complimented as “The Julia child of Taiwan” by Director Ang Lee of Eat Drink Man Woman, Theresa Lin was born in Tainan, Taiwan, and graduated from Fu-Jen Catholic University.
She is broadly popular throughout the worldwide Chinese community as the author of 16 seminal cookbooks in Chinese, which are distributed generally throughout Asia and in Chinese-language bookstores around the world.

Her popularity became fame through her role as the executive food designer of the hit film Eat Drink Man Woman, which won an Oscar nomination as Best Foreign Film. She is frequently invited abroad to demonstrate Chinese Cooking Art in many venues, including the Cannes Film Festival, the Academy Awards in Los Angeles, and I.T.B. Berlin, and is consecutively invited for three years to demonstrate in the Philadelphia Food Festival “The Book and The Cook,” in which she has won popular acclaim.
Lin hosts talk shows “Eat Drink Man Woman” (weekly) and “What’s Cooking” (daily) at KAZN AM 1300 radio station for 10 years in Los Angeles. In addition, she also hosts a cooking demonstration program on Power TV Cable Channel, Local TV Channel 18, and HK Jade Channel (TVB). She has been dedicated herself in the Asian Community to help cultures exchanging and has been voluntarily as interpreter for asylum at the immigration court; also doing lots of charity fundraising for the Society.

About Regina Varolli

Regina Varolli grew up in kitchens. The daughter of a restaurateur mom from Los Angeles, California and a chef-dad from Reggio Emilia, Italy, her first attempt at gastronomy was making escargot at age 6, with snails foraged from the back garden. While that didn’t work too well—everyone spit them out—she never stopped approaching food as an adventure.

Today she lives in Manhattan and isn’t afraid to eat anything, or to spit out the bad stuff. Though her taste is refined by fine dining and perfect pastry, she still craves a great burger and fries, and thinks Ghirardelli instant brownie mix is fabulous. Gina recently launched her new food blog, Dov’e La Regina? , and is currently authoring three culinary titles for the 99 Series of Books.

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Photos courtesy of China Airlines and Rick Ho, Sing Tao Newspapers

Taipei, Taiwan – China Airlines (CAL) proudly announces that starting April 28, 2011, flights from Taipei to New York will stop over in Osaka, Japan instead of Anchorage, Alaska. CAL will operate three round-trip flights per week on Boeing 747-400 passenger aircraft. The route change provides more choices and comfort to passengers traveling between Taiwan, Japan and the United States, as well as additional frequency on Taiwan-Japan routes with three additional flights between Taiwan and Japan.

At present, CAL already operates seven flights a week between Taipei and Osaka, and this schedule change will bring the total to ten flights a week. Osaka is Japan’s second-largest metropolis, being just slightly smaller than Tokyo. Osaka’s Kansai International Airport is equipped with modernized facilities, providing a wide variety of shopping, entertainment and rest choices.

To celebrate the new service, CAL is offering a NT$2,000 discount on Taipei-Osaka round-trip tickets, reducing the fare to NT$11,700 for those who purchase tickets through CAL’s website before May 31, 2011. CAL has also launched a new three-day, two-night “Fun in Spring Promotion” Dynasty Package tour for NT$13,000 and up per person, which includes economy airfare, two nights’ accommodation in Osaka and a one-way transportation coupon to get from Kansai airport to downtown Osaka. Those who purchase the package before June 25 will also each receive one sakura-flavored tea drink in their hotel rooms.

CAL is also offering free transfers to any point in the eastern United States for those purchasing tickets before June 16, 2011, so that passengers arriving at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport at one o’clock pm local time will be able to transfer to major cities in the eastern United States. CAL is also offering special promotional fares for Business Class and Economy Class tickets. Passengers flying to New York on Dynasty Package tours may enjoy a free admission ticket to New York’s famous Empire State Building, while those returning to Taiwan from New York may purchase discounted hotel accommodations in Osaka, with additional cash discounts and mileage benefits for Dynasty Flyer members.

Business Class passengers may enjoy exquisite Japanese meals prepared under the supervision of a master Japanese chef on the Osaka-New York leg of the flight, including Rakuten fine dishes and other elegant and exquisite meals. Economy Class passengers will also enjoy specially prepared Western and Japanese meals, making for a very different flying experience.

In spite of the slowdown in the travel market prompted by the strong earthquake, CAL has continued maintaining normal transport links between Taiwan and Japan. The United Nations, the International Civil Aviation Organization and the World Health Organization have all announced that radiation emission levels in Japan remain well within safe ranges, and that flights to Japan do not endanger the health of flight crews and passengers, making it unnecessary to place any restrictions on Japan-bound flights. Britain, Canada, Denmark and France have already lifted previous restrictions on travel to Tokyo, while the United States also announced on April 14 that its previous Travel Warning for Japan had been lowered to a Travel Alert. The Japan Association of Travel Agents (JATA) has also encouraged the public to resume normal tourism and consumption in Japan as the best way to help Japan recover from its earthquake disaster.

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