Voice of America
Date: October 16, 2020
By: Joyce Huang

TAIPEI, TAIWAN – Taiwan's fishery regulator this week rebuked last month's U.S. inclusion of Taiwan-caught fish for the first time in its list of goods produced by forced labor, saying the move inflicts "unfair" harm on law-abiding producers, although fisher advocacy groups disagree.  

The U.S. Labor Department Sept. 30 added fish from Taiwan to the latest edition of its "List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor," required under 2005 U.S. legislation.  

Taiwan has a distant-water fishing fleet of more than 1,100 vessels, the world's second largest after China, with an annual output value of $1.4 billion. Fisheries Agency figures show the island employs about 32,000 migrant fishers, mostly from Indonesia and the Philippines, 20,000 of whom work aboard Taiwan-flagged distant-water vessels.      [FULL  STORY]