Taiwan Fisheries Agency Director-General Chih-Sheng Chang addresses complex Taiwan-China relationship

Home to one of the world’s largest fishing fleets and tuna-processing industries, Taiwan has recently faced increased scrutiny of its labor standards for its distant-water fleet. 

In an interview with SeafoodSource, Chih-Sheng Chang, director-general of the Fisheries Agency at the Council of Agriculture in Taiwan’s Executive Yuan, the country’s executive branch of government, discussed the government’s efforts to address labor issues and the potential impact of Sino-Taiwanese conflict on international seafood supply chains, including the threat of increased military pressure from mainland China, which considers Taiwan part of its territory.

SeafoodSource: Is the Taiwanese fishery industry worried about the prospect of an invasion of Taiwan by China?

Chang: Whether China will change the status quo of Taiwan Strait or not is a matter of concern to everyone, including Taiwan and other neighboring countries. It is not possible that no one in the Taiwanese fisheries sector is worried about the current situation. However, Taiwan believes peace is what everyone wants and jointly developing the economy and prospering the industry is what really promotes every country’s growth and improves people’s lives.

SeafoodSource: What, if anything, are you doing to protect and prepare the fishing industry for this situation?

Chang: Because of the geographical relationship, China is one of the major markets for Taiwan’s seafood products. However, in order to avoid over reliance on a single market, Taiwan government actively supports its fishery sector to explore the other major seafood consumer markets, for example, the U.S., the E.U., and the Middle East.

China is a non-market economy. There is always an uncertainty as regards its policies. In order to prevent Taiwanese companies from losing their assets or investment due to China’s uncertain and unpredictable policies, for example, arbitrarily implementing import prohibition measures without complying with relevant international economic and trade norms, supporting Taiwanese fishery industries to diversify their sales is one of our priorities.

For example, China ceased to import Taiwan’s fresh or chilled silverfish and frozen Japanese jack mackerel in 2022 for positive reaction of Covid-19 on the packages. In the World Trade Organization, Taiwan, the U.S., Australia, India, and other countries call on China to review and correct its current trading manner, which is not in line with international trading regulation and not based on scientific evidence. However, China’s policies remain unchanged as of now.

SeafoodSource: How interconnected are the Chinese and Taiwanese fleets? Are there any fishing companies in China owned by Taiwanese investors and vice versa?

Chang: It is fair to say that Taiwanese fishing fleets and Chinese fishing fleets are competitors. Any Taiwanese capital investment in China is subject to Taiwan government’s review and approval on a case-by-case basis. It is prohibited by Taiwan’s government that Chinese companies can directly invest in the Taiwanese fisheries sector, including owning fishing vessels.

SeafoodSource: Are the Chinese and Taiwanese seafood industries integrated? Do you have the same distributors, and do Taiwanese companies own and operate a lot of seafood processing facilities in China?

Chang: It is my understanding that Taiwanese and Chinese seafood industries have little connections in terms of the supply chains. But most of the squid caught by Taiwanese fishing fleets is shipped to China for processing. Other than that, Taiwan also sells various kinds of seafood products to China.

It is required by China’s government that Taiwanese merchants must register with the Chinese government’s system before selling seafood products to China. After entering China, Taiwanese seafood industry do not have specific marketing channels in China, so sharing the same distributors with Chinese seafood industry is understandable.

Regarding Taiwanese companies owning and operating seafood processing facilities in China, any Taiwanese capital investment in China is subject to Taiwan government’s review and approval on a case-by-case basis. Since labor cost in China is in general lower than that in most of other countries, and China is also the biggest seafood consumer market in the world, setting up a processing plant there should be a reasonable decision for business. But, since the Fisheries Agency is not in charge of the investment to China, I don’t have detail numbers of such kind of investment to hand.

SeafoodSource: The U.S. and E.U. markets are becoming more vigilant on labor and IUU fishing issues in granting market access to Chinese companies. Is this an opportunity for Taiwan to prove it has better controls in place to protect labor rights and the environment, compared to China?

Chang: Taiwan has committed itself to safeguarding human rights and protecting environment. Taiwan recognized that a long-term continuous development of distant-water fisheries relies on sustainable marine resources and skilled fishing crew members. With this in mind, Taiwan constantly raises the human rights for crew members and participates in the conservation of marine resources in order to seek a balance between industries, human rights, and natural resources.

As the director general of Taiwan Fisheries Agency, I recognized that there were several cases of forced labor happening in Taiwanese fishing fleets, but however, these are only isolated cases. Taiwan is a democratic country, ruled by law and attaching importance to human rights. Taiwanese fishers are law-abiding. Taiwanese fisheries are totally different from Chinese fisheries, which has systemic problems on labor and IUU issues.

In terms of safeguarding human rights and fighting IUU fishing, Taiwan has been working hard on these matters. We do these things not to compare with others, but just what a country which is responsible for the ocean and its people should do.

SeafoodSource: How successful have your efforts been in improving labor conditions on Taiwanese fishing vessels?

Chang: In general, Taiwan’s efforts on improving human rights and working conditions on its distant-water fishing fleets are recognized by the public and international community.

Taiwan is continuously implementing "Action Plan of Fisheries and Human Rights.” As of now, the monthly minimum salary has been raised from USD 450 (EUR 430) to USD 550 (EUR 530), and it is required to pay it directly to the fishing crew members, not through foreign agents. The rest periods for crew members shall be in line with the relevant regulations of the ILO-C188 Convention; the life insurance coverage for each crew member has been raised to TWD 1.5 million (USD 48,000, EUR 46,500). The health insurance coverage shall be at least TWD 300,000 (USD 9,600, EUR 9,300). And crew members should be provided unimpeded channels for complaints.

In addition, crew members’ attendance records, inflatable lifejackets, the CCTV cameras on ships and other facilities related to the safety and labor rights of crew members will be required by law in the near future.

Photo courtesy of Taiwan Overseas Community Affairs Council