Taiwan and the US are set to resume negotiations on economic issues under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) after a three-year hiatus.
The decision was finalized after a delegation of officials from the Office of the US Trade Representative, the US Department of Commerce and the American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) Washington headquarters met with Taiwanese officials in Taipei during a two-day visit on Tuesday and Wednesday.
In a press release issued yesterday morning, the AIT said: “The two sides are working to finalize mutually agreeable dates for the [TIFA] meeting and are targeting late 2010 or early 2011.”
The two sides “began discussions about the agenda for the TIFA, and agreed to have follow-up expert-level discussions on a range of issues and initiatives in the months leading up to the TIFA Trade and Investment Council meeting,” the press statement said.
Led by US Assistant Trade Representative for China Affairs Claire Reade, the US delegation discussed the full range of economic issues important to both sides during the visit, including how to broaden and deepen the strong bilateral trade and economic relationship under the auspices of TIFA, the AIT said, adding that Reade “reaffirmed the importance of the US-Taiwan bilateral economic relationship.”
The new round of TIFA Trade and Investment Council meetings will be chaired by Deputy Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis on the US side and Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang (梁國欣) on the Taiwanese side.
Liang told the press yesterday that the US delegation also visited the Council of Agriculture Affairs and the Department of Health, exchanging ideas with officials on agricultural trade, investment, pharmaceutical pricing, product standards, environmental protection, electronic commerce, enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR), medical equipment trade and industry cooperation.
Bruce Linghu (令狐榮達), director--general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of North American Affairs, said both sides made “positive progress” during their meetings as they managed to narrow disagreements on existing bilateral issues.
The TIFA was established in September 1994 to resolve bilateral trade issues and enhance economic cooperation, with both sides taking turns hosting meetings once or twice a year.
Since 1998, the US has suspended the bilateral talks several times to express its dissatisfaction with Taiwan’s slow progress in IPR protection, pharmaceutical pricing and the opening up of its rice and telecommunications markets.
The latest suspension was in July 2007, when Taiwan failed to strike a deal with the US to completely open up its beef market in line with guidelines from the World Animal Health Organization.
Last October, Taiwan agreed to allow the import of US bone-in beef after signing the Taiwan-US beef protocol, paving the way for the resumption of talks, but it was then pushed back after the legislature banned imports of ground beef, offal and other beef parts.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) yesterday said the resumption of the TIFA talks indicated that the beef issue has taken a back seat to other economic and trade issues of mutual concern that could be dealt with under the framework.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
RSS