A dialogue between Taiwan and the US on trade and investment that began yesterday is expected to help ties between the two countries, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) spokeswoman Sonia Urbom said.
The dialogue concludes tomorrow and covers a wide range of topics, such as intellectual property rights protection, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, agriculture, investment and technical barriers to trade, Urbom said.
An AIT delegation is taking part in the talks with a Taiwanese delegation organized by the Office of Trade Negotiations and headed by deputy chief negotiator Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮).
The talks are the first of their kind since US President Donald Trump took office in January.
Yang is also director of the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Bureau of Foreign Trade.
The US delegation is to meet with trade authorities in Taiwan and “will continue to work to expand US-Taiwan bilateral trade and investment relations,” Urbom said in a statement.
According to the Office of Trade Negotiations, the US delegation is comprised of representatives from the Office of the US Trade Representative, the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Agriculture.
Tseng Hsien-chao (曾顯照), a negotiator with the Office of Trade Negotiations, said the latest annual negotiations are expected to focus on topics raised in previous talks, including US pork and beef imports.
During last year’s dialogue, held in Washington under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, a bilateral mechanism between the two countries, the US delegation also raised the pork and beef import issue.
Taiwan bans imports of US meat products that contain traces of the leanness-enhancing drug ractopamine.
It relented on beef in 2012, after maximum residue limits for ractopamine in beef and pork were set by a UN food standards body.
In addition, both sides are expected to talk about the huge trade surplus Taiwan enjoys with the US, Tseng said.
Taiwan has the 14th-largest trade surplus with the US, exporting US$9.1 billion more than it imports from the US, according to US Department of Commerce data.
Tseng said that his office had explained the trade surplus to the US, emphasizing that the figure excludes the purchase of military vessels and military personnel training, so that Taiwan is not a major cause of the country’s huge trade imbalance.
In fact, Taipei and Washington complement each other in terms of global trade, he said.
This year’s negotiations are expected to resolve technical issues rather than come up with any substantive advances in bilateral economic and trade policies, he said.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final