The US and Taiwan have made substantial progress toward a bilateral electronic commerce agreement that would scrap tariffs on digital products, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director William Stanton said yesterday.
“Such an agreement would prevent duties from being imposed on over US$400 million in transactions involving digital products, including software, movies and music, as well as ‘carrier media’ such as disks and magnetic tapes,” Stanton said in a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Taipei.
He also said he would prepare for an active agenda that reflects the full scope and ambition of the US economic relationship with Taiwan during the next Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) meeting, to be hosted by Taiwan early January.
Although the TIFA process has led to successes on such issues as intellectual property rights protection and the nation’s accession to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), Stanton urged Taiwan to continue efforts to reduce copyright infringement on campuses while complying with its GPA obligations to open the nation’s public procurement market, worth more than US$20 billion, to US companies.
He also urged Taiwan to ensure fair market access for pharmaceuticals and medical devices by providing attractive pricing and reimbursement policies for the most innovative drugs, therapies and medical device companies.
VISA WAIVER
Meanwhile, Stanton reiterated that adding a mandatory personal appearance to the nation’s passport application process would be necessary before the US could ease its security concerns about Taiwanese passports and include the nation in its Visa Waiver Program.
Next spring, Taiwan will begin to incorporate a personal appearance requirement in the process on a voluntary basis, he said, adding that US-bound Taiwanese visitors had spent approximately US$1.6 billion on travel and tourism there last year.
Taiwan is the US’ seventh-largest trade partner with US$61.6 billion in bilateral trade last year. Taiwanese companies invested US$3.9 billion in the US last year, Stanton said.
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