Friday, April 16, 2010

Taiwan, Canada ink working holiday MOU

Taipei, April 16 (CNA) Canada has become the fourth country to sign a working holiday agreement with Taiwan, allowing young people to travel and work in each other's country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) announced at a press conference Friday.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on youth mobility, which aims to simplify the administrative process for young people aged 18-35 from Canada and Taiwan who wish to travel and work in each other's territory for up to one year, was signed in the Canadian capital of Ottawa earlier in the day by the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei (CTOT) and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Canada (TECO) early Friday, said MOFA spokesman Henry Chen.

CTOT represents Canadian interests in Taiwan in the absence of bilateral diplomatic ties, while TECO functions as Taiwan's representative office in Ottawa.

"Through this arrangement, Canadian and Taiwanese youth can gain a unique travel, work and life experience abroad, enriching their understanding of each other's culture, " said CTOT Executive Director Scott Fraser in a press release. "Such exchanges will also further strengthen the longstanding people-to-people ties between Canada and Taiwan," he added.

Taiwan signed similar agreements with Australia and New Zealand in 2004 and with Japan in 2009. It is the fourth country in the Asia-Pacific region to have made such arrangements with Canada, following Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, according to Chen.

He said the MOU is expected to come into effect July 1. Each side will offer a quota of 200 of multiple entry visas in the first year of the program, increasing the number over the next few years depending on the popularity of the program.

The program is expected to boost bilateral tourism. According to statistics provided by Taiwan's Tourism Bureau, the number of Taiwanese nationals traveling to Canada plummeted from 112,413 in 2004 to 61,893 in 2009.

The existing working holiday programs are going smoothly, Chen went on, with more than 12,000 applicants -- 600 for New Zealand, 2,000 to Japan and more than 10,000 to Australia -- last year.

Meanwhile, Winston Chen, deputy director-general of MOFA's Department of North American Affairs, said the ministry has been working hard toward Canada's granting of visa-free privileges for Taiwanese nationals and will continue to do so.

In terms of Taiwan's potential filing of a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Canada over its refusal to allow generalized preferential tariffs on Taiwan-made textile products, he said this will not have a negative impact on the visa negotiations.

"Bilateral relations between Taiwan and Canada are on the right track and are too good to be damaged by a trade dispute, " he said, adding that Taiwan will still do its best to protect its own interests once the case is in the WTO. (By Chris Wang) ENDITEM/J