Supporters in US more pessimistic

Taiwan's in Washington are becoming increasingly pessimistic about prospects for influencing WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, who has been pushing to alter Taiwan's status in the organization.

US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick has been trying to get Supachai to reverse his plans ever since the WTO's top administrator began his campaign to downgrade Taiwan's representation in February, but has apparently made no progress, sources said.

Zoellick also been lobbying America's allies to pressure Supachai to abandon his campaign to downgrade Taiwan, sources said.

Telephone calls to Zoellick's office were not returned Thursday.

While US government is officially on record as supporting Taiwan in retaining its current status as a permanent mission, there is growing concern that it will be ignored.

Taiwan's in Washington charge that Supachai is close to Beijing and has been since his term as a senior Thailand official.

Before being elected WTO director-general in September 1999 and officially assuming the post three years later, he was his nation's minister of commerce and a major force in Southeast Asian regional economic and trade initiatives.

Leaders the Congressional Taiwan Caucus were on Thursday drafting a letter to protest Supachai's efforts to downgrade Taiwan, but were uncertain about what to say and to whom to address the letter. Some said they wondered whether any letter would have an effect.

"If Supachai doesn't listen to Zoellick, why would he listen to the four chairmen of the Taiwan Caucus?" said one disheartened lobbyist.

Meanwhile, the George W. Bush administration voiced its support for Taiwan keeping its current status in the WTO. But observers said they doubted whether the president would pursue the matter when he meets Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in France tomorrow night on the fringes of the G8 meeting there.

"The US supports Taiwan's full and equal membership in the WTO consistent with Taiwan's terms of accession as approved by the WTO membership," the State Department said in a prepared statement.

The statement seemed to demand that any change in status be approved by Taiwan and the membership of the organization.

"We are urging the secretary-general and his staff to insure that any decisions taken on this are acceptable to interested parties and consistent with the principle of Taiwan's full membership in the WTO," the department said.

On Feb. 12, Supachai made five requests to Taiwan, sources said, which have been the cause of disagreement.

The first was to urge Taiwan to start changing its diplomatic titles on name cards and letterheads.

The second asked the WTO secretariat to "use only sovereignty-neutral terminology when referring to Taiwan," avoiding terms like country or state.

The third was for Supachai to reserve the right to change in all documents any terminology that was not sovereignty-neutral.

The fourth was to alter Taiwan's name in the official WTO directory from "permanent mission" to "office of permanent representative."

And fifth was "to affirm that the actions regarding WTO representation of Taiwan have no implications for sovereignty."