Ho meets with her APEC counterparts in S Korea

Taiwan conducted several bilateral meetings with its APEC counterparts yesterday on a variety of issues, Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) told a press conference after concluding the ministerial meeting.

In particular, during talks with WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, Ho said she has expressed the government's hope to be included in the WTO's Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), as Taiwan made the promise as a condition of its WTO entry to accede to the pact one year after accession, but it has yet to be approved by other members.

Ho said Taiwan has talked with trade officials from the US, Canada, Vietnam and Indonesia over issues such as beef imports, industrial cooperation and easing trade and investment barriers. It will also arrange bilateral meetings with other countries which are still under negotiation, she said.

Reopening Taiwan to beef imports from the US is a main concern of US officials, but Ho said the decision is up to the Department of Health.

Given the huge number of Taiwanese investments in Vietnam, Ho called on Vietnamese officials to remove trade obstacles for Taiwanese companies doing business in that country.

She also said the 21 economics ministers at the APEC meeting had endorsed a joint statement renewing their commitment to establishing a free-trade area in the region by 2020.

Although some APEC ministers have said next month's WTO talks in Hong Kong would collapse if the EU did not make a bigger cut in its farm subsidies, Ho said APEC members hope to adopt "sectoral tariff reductions" as a way to move forward the negotiations.

For example, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the US have agreed to cut tariffs to zero on integrated circuit modules used in electronics and telecommunications products, she said.

In related news, Teco Group (東元集團) chairman Theodore Huang (黃茂雄) arrived in Busan yesterday to join the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) meeting that begins today.

Huang told reporters that he would propose the realization of direct cross-strait transportation at a group meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) to facilitate China-bound Taiwanese businesspeople.

He said he would also probe Hu's intentions toward inking a free-trade pact with Taiwan.

Lin Hsin-yi (林信義), President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) envoy for the two-day APEC leaders' summit which opens tomorrow, arrived in Busan last night.

Lin is staying at the same hotel as Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.