Taipei, Nov. 30 (CNA) Agricultural issues will be among a wide range of matters on the United States' priority list in the upcoming talks under its Trade and Investment Agreement (TIFA) with Taiwan, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman Raymond Burghardt said Tuesday.
The agenda of the TIFA talks will include "IPR (intellectual property rights) enforcement, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, standards, agricultural issues and others relating to technical barriers to trade, " Burghardt said in an address to the members of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Taipei.
The TIFA framework has provided an official channel for Taiwan-U.S. dialogue on trade and economic issues since it was signed in September 1994, but the two sides have not held TIFA talks since 2007. The next round of talks reportedly will be held late December or early 2011.
The list of U.S. priorities in part reflect its assessment of where Taiwan's policies may be having a negative impact on the ability of U.S. exports of goods, services, and agricultural products to fairly compete in the Taiwan market, Burghardt said.
The U.S. provided strong support in Taiwan's accession to the WTO (World Trade Organization) and its participation in the Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) and the World Health Assembly (WHA), said the AIT head.
The U.S., arguably the largest and the most open market, wants to ensure that the bilateral trade relationship is "governed by the principle of fairness, " he said in his speech titled "The U.S. and Taiwan: An Important Economic Relationship."
At the same time, the U.S. will not allow general bilateral trade relations to be overshadowed by Taiwan's failure to implement a beef protocol, although the issue did hurt Taiwan's credibility and reliability, he said.
He said the U.S. welcomes the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and China earlier this year and is encouraging Taiwan to notify the WTO of the ECFA "in a manner consistent with requirements for agreements that cover substantially all trade."
The U.S will be closely observing the ECFA process, and if the pact succeeds in making Taiwan a better investment environment, American and other companies will also benefit from it, Burghardt said.
Burghardt has a long history of involvement with Taiwan. He served as director of the AIT, which represents the interests of the United States in Taiwan in the absence of diplomatic ties, from 1999 to 2001. He also studied for a year in the central city of Taichung at the U.S. State Department's Chinese Language School in the mid-1970s. (By Chris Wang) enditem/pc
DPP to focus on party's China policy
2010/11/30 22:36:51
Taipei, Nov. 30 (CNA) The main opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is planning to establish a think tank to help formulate its China policy and improve the party's engagement with China, DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen said Tuesday.
The DPP welcomes any form of dialogue with China as long as no prerequisites are set, Tsai said in a briefing for foreign media three days after her defeat in the Nov. 27 municipality mayoral elections.
The DPP secured just two of the five municipalities but won more of the popular votes than its rival, the ruling Kuomintang (KMT).
Tsai also highlighted the party's progress in the city council elections that took place alongside the mayoral elections, as the DPP won as many seats on the five city councils as the KMT, with both parties tied at 130.
The DPP plans to spend several months discussing its China policy, which will be a part of the party's "10 year platform" covering a wide range of issues, she said, although she did not set a timetable.
The DPP's new China policy under Tsai is greatly anticipated, as she has been trying to move the party more to the middle and appeal to moderate voters after its previous hardline stance earned it an "anti-China" label.
Tsai, who received more than a million votes in the Xinbei City mayoral election but lost to the KMT's Eric Liluan Chu, said the funding for the think tank will come from her election subsidy of more than NT$30 million. (By Chris Wang) ENDITEM/J