Premier Yu Shyi-kun told US business leaders Tuesday that if the prices are similar, the government would prefer that state-controlled China Airlines purchase aircraft produced by US-based Boeing to those manufactured by Europe's Airbus.
The company plans to buy about 16 mid-range passenger jets.
Later in the day, Yu toured "Ground Zero," the site of America's worst-ever terrorist attack, in lower Manhattan.
To pay respects to those who lost their lives during the disaster, Yu offered a wreath on behalf of the Taiwan government and its people.
On iron fences surrounding St. Paul's Chapel near the site of the attacks hang clothes and baseball caps of all types and sizes with withered flowers and cards.
"To our loving, kind-hearted and fun dad -- Michael Tinley, we love you so very much, and miss you more and more each day. Lisa, Jenna, Steve and Chad," said one card.
The message was written on a large-sized card with a family photo of Tinley, who died in last year's World Trade Center attack.
Before Yu's stop at "Ground Zero," he met privately with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who said that the city welcomed leaders from around the world and that he hoped Yu would return again.
"Forty percent of our people [in the city] are born outside of the US. It's always been the entry to America and that's what makes New York such a great city," he said.
Bloomberg, who replaced Rudolph Guiliani early this year, upset China by suggesting that Taiwan was a country after he met with Chinese Vice President Hu Jintao (
When asked after the meeting if he would consider meeting rep-resentatives of the Taiwan government, Bloomberg said, "I certainly would. ... I would certainly welcome visitors from either country."
His predecessor famously refused twice to meet with top Chinese officials, once when President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) was in New York in 1997 and again when Premier Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基) visited the city in 1999.
When President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) passed through the city in 2001, Guiliani made a point of meeting with him in the presidential suite of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
Bloomberg, whose company has an office in Taipei, said he has been to Taiwan many times and thought the food and people were great.
"The first time I was ever in Taiwan, I went out about six in the morning to run and I got totally lost. At six in the morning, it was hard to find somebody that spoke English," he said. "But we managed to survive."
Earlier, during a luncheon with 53 US business leaders, Yu voiced the government's preference for buying Boeing aircraft to European-based Airbus planes in China Airlines' US$2 billion-to-US$3 billion purchase plan for up to 16 mid-range passenger aircraft.
"There's a good possibility that we'll make the purchase from Boeing if the prices [offered by the two companies] are similar," Day Sheng-tong (
His comments were a sharp turnabout from those he made just days ago.
During a one-hour interview with Spanish-language news agency Agencia EFE on Aug. 2, Yu said that the government would not intervene in the matter.
"We'll let China Airlines take care of it. No matter what the final outcome may be, it has to be a professional one and take into consideration Taiwan's national interest and abide by WTO-related rules," he said.
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