Focus Taiwan
Date: 04/07/2020
By: Chen Yun-yu and Matthew Mazzetta

Taipei, April 7 (CNA) The Netherlands Trade and Investment Office on Monday thanked Taiwan for

its pledged donation of surgical face masks, saying that "working together is the only way we'll get through" the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview with CNA, Representative Guy Wittich said Taiwan's April 1 announcement that it will donate 10 million masks to international partners, including 5.6 million to European Union member states, came as a surprise, after he was unable to arrange an emergency shipment of masks requested by the Utrecht city government.

I "asked MOFA (Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs) whether they know any suppliers of masks and whether it's possible that Taiwan waives the export ban," Wittich said, referring to the government's Jan. 23 move to reserve all face mask production for domestic use.

"After some time, I gave up sending formal requests, so I was really surprised to know about the donation," he said.    [FULL  STORY]