Due to some pressure from lawmakers, the US has agreed to cut its price for the 54 AAVP7-A1 assault amphibious vehicles it agreed to sell to the Taiwan marine corps by US$10 million, a lawmaker announced yesterday.
KMT Legislator Lin Nan-sheng
Lin, one of the lawmakers pressing for the price cut, quoted a notice from the marine corps as saying that the US has agreed to drop the price for each AAVP7-A1 by US$100,000 from US$3 million to US$2.9 million.
The total cost reduction for the deal is US$10 million, with further cost cutting taking effect elsewhere. Lin was the only lawmaker invited to a meeting with a US military delegation on Nov. 20 in Kaohsiung, where he brought up the request for the cost reduction.
The US military delegation came to Taiwan for two main purposes -- to evaluate the combat strength of the Taiwan marine corps and exchange opinions with Taiwan lawmakers who had different opinions about the AAVP7-A1 deal.
Lin was heavily involved in the talks, since he was known to be determined to cut the AAVP7-A1 budget.
He initially insisted that the KMT legislative caucus would not let the deal pass through the legislator unless the US agreed to cut the total cost for the vehicles by 20 percent.
"Although the cost reduction that the US has agreed upon is far less than 20 percent, it is still acceptable since it represents that it is not impossible to ask the US to listen to our opinions," Lin said.
It was not the first time that Lin has succeeded in negotiating a cost reduction for an arms deal that the military has with the US.
Lin's last success was with the deal to buy Kidd-class destroyers. The US agreed to drop the price for the four Kidds by 5 percent, largely because of Lin's persistence.
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