With signs that the US is pushing for ratification of a free-trade agreement with South Korea, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said Taiwan and the US should resume Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) negotiations as soon as possible.
TIFA negotiations have been stalled amid a dispute between Taiwan and the US over the import of US beef containing the chemical ractopamine — an animal feed additive that promotes the development of lean meat.
Ministry spokesman James Chang (章計平) said US beef imports only accounted for a small portion of total trade between the two countries and that many sectors of the economy stood to benefit from the resumption of negotiations.
Resuming TIFA talks required a consensus between Taiwan and the US, Chang said, urging Washington to return to the negotiating table.
“Everything is negotiable,” including US beef and ractopamine, he said.
Chang’s comments came as US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday that concluding a long-delayed free-trade agreement with South Korea was a priority for the administration of US President Barack Obama, and Washington was committed to getting the deal done this year.
Clinton told a gathering of business leaders in Seoul that, beyond the economic benefits, the pact was “profoundly in America’s strategic interest as well.”
“Getting this done together sends a powerful message that America and [South] Korea are partners for the long-term and that America is fully embracing its role as a Pacific power,” she said.
US and South Korean trade negotiators struck a deal in December on a free-trade pact, which was signed in 2007, but had not been ratified for three years because of US auto and beef industry concerns.
Both the US Congress and the South Korean parliament have yet to pass bills to approve the pact, despite Obama’s renewed push for ratification.
“I want to state as strongly as I can how committed the Obama administration is to passing the [South] Korea-US free-trade agreement this year,” she told a gathering of business leaders during a whirlwind trip through South Korea and Japan.
A US official said that Washington hoped to have the pact ratified by congress well before an APEC summit in November.
US Trade Representative Ron Kirk had previously said the Obama administration wanted to win congressional approval of a free-trade agreement before July. The agreement is pending in South Korea’s parliament and is expected to be passed.
Clinton said the pact — which Washington says will increase exports of US goods by US$11 billion and create tens of thousands of jobs — is ready for review by congress.
US Representative Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the US House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, last month criticized Republicans for refusing to move ahead on the South Korea deal until the White House sends congress implementing bills for long-delayed trade agreements with Colombia and Panama.
Republicans broadly support the South Korea deal, but have threatened to block a vote on the pact unless the White House also submits the other two pending trade deals for approval.
“This is a priority for me, for President Obama and for the entire administration,” Clinton said. “We are determined to get it done, and I believe we will.”
The US and the EU are racing against each other to be the first to seal a free-trade agreement with South Korea, the world’s 15th--largest economy, hoping to get a jump on the benefits from increased business deals.
The European Parliament approved a South Korea free-trade deal in February, clearing the way for the EU’s largest bilateral free-trade deal to take effect from July.
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