Written by Shao-Yun Chang, Vanny El Rahman, and Beatrice Zani. This article (part 2) continues to illustrate how the US-Taiwan Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) and its mandatory “zero-fee” recruitment policies impact Taiwan’s fishing industry. While designed to protect foreign migrant workers from predatory debt bondage, the policy places heavy financial strain on small-scale vessel owners already facing declining yields and rising costs.
Written by Shao-Yun Chang, Vanny El Rahman, and Beatrice Zani. This article (part 1) examines how the US-Taiwan Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) and its mandatory “zero-fee” recruitment policies impact Taiwan’s fishing industry. While designed to protect foreign migrant workers from predatory debt bondage, the policy places heavy financial strain on small-scale vessel owners already facing declining yields and rising costs. Ultimately, the piece highlights how these sweeping regulations risk driving illicit practices without solving systemic supply-chain issues.
Written by Jason Chuah. Taiwan, with her economic strength in shipping, could perhaps be likened to a first-class marathon athlete running in the Olympics with flipflops unless it modernises its commercial maritime law. UNCTAD reports in its 2019 Shipping Outlook Report that Taiwan ranks 11 in terms of “ownership of world fleet ranked by dead-weight tonnage.” This is one place above the UK and only two places below the US. In terms of monetary value, it is ranked number seven in the world for ownership of bulk carriers (excluding oil tankers) and in the top 20 ship owning countries by value. Yang Ming and Evergreen are in the top 20 of terminal operators in the global league table.
Written by Yu-Cheng Shih. The fishing and sailing communities during the Cold War is a long-neglected subject in current Cold War scholarship. For fishers and sailors whose livelihood requires frequent border-crossing, legal documentation became necessary, lest they be arrested as undocumented immigrants or smugglers. In other words, the new Cold War border illegalised a considerable part of these people’s livelihoods.
