US officials have told a visiting TSU delegation that Washington's willingness to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with Taipei might hinge on how well Taiwan fulfills its commitments as a member of the WTO, a TSU delegate said.
"They say that right now we have to fulfil our commitment to the WTO as part of the mechanism [toward an FTA] because the WTO is the basic framework for a bilateral trade agreement with the United States," TSU Legislator John Wang (王政中), a member of the Legislative Yuan's Foreign Relations Committee, told the Taipei Times.
"They're supportive of an FTA, but they are saying that one of the prerequisites is we need to fulfill our commitments to the WTO, or at least show that we've made progress," he said.
The delegation, headed by TSU Chairman Huang Chu-wen (
Among their meetings was a session with three of the four founding co-chairmen of the newly created Congressional Taiwan Caucus -- Democrat Sherrod Brown, Republican Steve Chabot and Democrat Robert Wexler -- plus long-time Taiwan supporter, Senator Frank Murkowski.
They also went to a dinner hosted by outgoing AIT director Richard Bush and attended by State Department and other US officials.
The delegation brought letters of greeting from former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), who was originally scheduled to make this trip but was sidelined by a heart ailment.
Huang said that any future Lee trip would depend on what his doctors say.
The topic of the agreement, along with Taiwan's membership in various international organizations including the World Health Organization, were the main topics of conversation, Huang and other delegation members said.
Taiwan's security and the US role in assuring that security was also raised, but delegates indicate that it came up mainly in connection with the FTA.
Taiwanese officials have stressed that such a trade agreement would boost Taiwan's strategic position by further integrating it into the global trade system, boosting its flagging economy and reinforcing ties with the US.
Huang, who had a meeting with President Chen Shui-bian (
But lawmaker Eric Wu (吳東昇), a member of the delegation, said that the question of a future visit to Washington by Chen was not raised in the meetings with the US officials, as far as he knew.
Huang told a press conference that the main purpose of the trip was to introduce the TSU members to US officials and lawmakers and to explain the party's platform and thinking.
The trip was the first to Washington by the one-year-old party.
Meanwhile, Congressional Taiwan Caucus co-chairman Wexler has sent a letter to US International Trade Commission Chairman Steve Koplon to express his strong support for an FTA.
The commission, an independent government agency that recommends trade policy to the administration, is conducting an investigation on a possible US-Taiwan FTA and is expected to issue its findings in October.
"As a strong supporter for upgrading our overall trade relations with Taiwan, I believe that the proposed free trade agreement ... merits careful evaluation and deserves strong support," Wexler said in his letter.
He also added that such an agreement would help "find new opportunities for US producers, workers and farmers," and "provides an extraordinary opportunity" for US investors in Asia.
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
Nipah virus infection is to be officially listed as a category 5 notifiable infectious disease in Taiwan in March, while clinical treatment guidelines are being formulated, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. With Nipah infections being reported in other countries and considering its relatively high fatality rate, the centers on Jan. 16 announced that it would be listed as a notifiable infectious disease to bolster the nation’s systematic early warning system and increase public awareness, the CDC said. Bangladesh reported four fatal cases last year in separate districts, with three linked to raw date palm sap consumption, CDC Epidemic Intelligence
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
US climber Alex Honnold left Taiwan this morning a day after completing a free-solo ascent of Taipei 101, a feat that drew cheers from onlookers and gained widespread international attention. Honnold yesterday scaled the 101-story skyscraper without a rope or safety harness. The climb — the highest urban free-solo ascent ever attempted — took just more than 90 minutes and was streamed live on Netflix. It was covered by major international news outlets including CNN, the New York Times, the Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. As Honnold prepared to leave Taiwan today, he attracted a crowd when he and his wife, Sanni,
RSS