Taiwan resumed talks on a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) with the US in Washington on Monday after a six-year hiatus.
It is expected that some breakthroughs may emerge during the sub-Cabinet-level trade consultations, especially in fields of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and opening of the nation's pharmaceutical market, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Issues to be discussed in the two-day meeting also include agricultural trade and further liberalization of Taiwan's telecommunications market.
If all goes well, the US may remove Taiwan from its Special 301 "priority watch" list for IPR violations monitoring next spring, the ministry said.
Jack Lu (
Tsai Lien-sheng (
"As we know, the USTR is still in the process of collecting responses from US copyright holders before reaching the final decision," Tsai said. "Since we have made so much effort in cracking down on commercial piracy and in IPR protection, the US agreed to resume TIFA talks this year ... But they never said they would agree to take Taiwan off its Special 301 `priority watch' list this fall or next spring."
The Taiwanese delegation is led by vice minister of economic affairs Steve Chen (
Meanwhile, Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) will arrive in Washington on Dec. 8 to attend an international seminar and meet with US trade and economics officials, business sources said Monday.
Ho will attend a seminar to be organized by the Institute for International Economics, a US think tank, and deliver a speech to American business executives at the invitation of the US-Taiwan Business Council which also called for the resumption of TIFA negotiations.
During her stay, Ho is also expected to meet with Bush administration officials from the US Trade Representative Office and the Department of Commerce, the sources said.
As US President George W. Bush is still organizing his new administrative team for his second term, Ho said she is not sure at the moment which US officials she will meet during the visit.
While her itinerary is still in the works, Ho said the main purpose of her visit is to conduct direct dialogue with representatives of major US business groups, briefing them on improvements in Taiwan's investment climate and lobbying US high-tech companies, particularly those in the biotechnology, digital content and semiconductor industries, to use Taiwan as their regional operations hub.
Ho's visit is yet another breakthrough in the high-level Taiwan-US economic exchanges following the resumption of TIFA talks.
The two nations held TIFA negotiations in 1994, 1997 and 1998. But the talks were broken off by Washington in late 2002 after both sides failed to produce movement toward resolving a number of trade disagreements, which in effect suspended all high-level economic contacts between Washington and Taiwan.
TIFA is a stepping stone to a Taiwan-US free trade agreement.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique