Taiwan to skip WTO conference after labelled 'Province of China'

TAIPEI, Mar 24: Taiwan said on Tuesday it will skip a high-level World Trade Organization meeting for the first time following a dispute with host nation Cameroon over the name used for the democratic island in visa documents.

The Taiwanese foreign ministry said it had lodged a "stern protest" after Cameroon designated the island "Taiwan, Province of China" in paperwork issued to the island's delegation before it departed for the March 26-29 event.

Cameroon then granted members of the group a "visa exemption", but the document did not mention their nationality, misspelled some English names and identified almost all of them as female, the ministry said.

The ministry also said in a statement it was clear that the central African country "had no sincere intention of resolving the issue".    �"AFP