US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will send a senior official to Taiwan in the near future to discuss ways of broadening economic relations between the two sides, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday.
Clinton revealed the decision during a meeting with former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), Taiwan’s representative to the APEC leaders’ summit in Vladivostok, Russia, on Sunday, the statement said.
Clinton said she would send Atul Keshap, coordinator of economic policy in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the US Department of State, to “consult on further broadening the US economic relationships with Taiwan,” according to the AIT statement.
The visit by Keshap, who concurrently serves as the senior US APEC official, is expected to pave the way for the resumption of long-stalled talks under the Taiwan-US Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), which is seen as a precursor to a full-fledged free-trade agreement.
Clinton expressed her appreciation for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) leadership in bringing Taiwan in line with international standards on imports such as beef, said the AIT, which represents US interests in Taiwan in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.
She was referring to the passage of amendments to the Act Governing Food Sanitation (食品衛生法) in late July that opened the doors to imports of beef containing traces of ractopamine, a livestock feed additive. According to the AIT, Clinton told Lien that the US was looking forward to Taiwan making the regulatory changes necessary to implement the legislation.
She also highlighted the value of greater engagement on economic and trade issues of interest to both sides, saying the US and Taiwan would now begin exploratory work and prepare for future expert-level engagement under the umbrella of TIFA, the AIT said.
Talks under TIFA have been halted since 2007 due to the beef dispute, which began over concerns about the safety of US beef following the discovery of mad cow disease cases in that country.
Washington considered resuming TIFA talks in late 2010, but decided against the idea early last year after Taiwan seized shipments of US beef containing ractopamine residue.
The AIT statement said the US and Taiwan were now taking steps to resume TIFA talks in the hope of expanding economic ties.
ACTION PLAN: Taiwan would expand procurement from the US and encourage more companies to invest in the US to deepen bilateral cooperation, Lai said The government would not impose reciprocal tariffs in retaliation against US levies, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he announced five strategies to address the issue, including pledging to increase Taiwanese companies’ investments in the US. Lai has in the past few days met with administrative and national security officials, as well as representatives from various industries, to explore countermeasures after US President Donald Trump on Wednesday last week announced a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese imports. In a video released yesterday evening, Lai said that Taiwan would not retaliate against the US with higher tariffs and Taiwanese companies’ commitments to
‘SPECIAL CHANNEL’: Taipei’s most important tasks are to stabilize industries affected by Trump’s trade tariffs and keep negotiations with Washington open, a source said National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) arrived in the US for talks with US President Donald Trump’s administration, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday. Wu was leading a delegation for a meeting known as the “special channel,” the Financial Times reported earlier. It marked Trump’s first use of the channel since returning to the White House on Jan. 20. Citing a source familiar with the matter, the Financial Times reported that Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) was also a part of the delegation. The visit came days after China concluded war games around Taiwan and amid Trump’s
CHIP EXCEPTION: An official said that an exception for Taiwanese semiconductors would have a limited effect, as most are packaged in third nations before being sold The Executive Yuan yesterday decried US President Donald Trump’s 32 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods announced hours earlier as “unfair,” saying it would lodge a representation with Washington. The Cabinet in a statement described the pledged US tariffs, expected to take effect on Wednesday next week, as “deeply unreasonable” and “highly regrettable.” Cabinet spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said that the government would “lodge a solemn representation” with the US Trade Representative and continue negotiating with Washington to “ensure the interests of our nation and industries.” Trump at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday announced a 10 percent baseline tariff on most goods
Intelligence agents have recorded 510,000 instances of “controversial information” being spread online by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so far this year, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report yesterday, as it warned of artificial intelligence (AI) being employed to generate destabilizing misinformation. The bureau submitted a written report to the Legislative Yuan in preparation for National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today. The CCP has been using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society by commenting on controversial issues such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investments in the
RSS