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.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
RSS