Supachai Panitchpakdi, director-general of the WTO, met with the country's top representative to the global-trade body on Monday in an attempt to clarify the unsettled dispute over Taiwan's representation to the body, insiders said yesterday.
Supachai took the initiative to arrange Monday's meeting with Yen Ching-chang (
The meeting marked the first time that the two met face-to-face since Supachai presented "five-point" requests to Yen on Feb. 12, a move that Taiwan considered downgrading to the nation's status at the WTO.
When contacted by phone by the Taipei Times yesterday, Geneva-based Yen first denied the meeting on Monday before saying: "I have no comment."
Insiders said Supachai showed concern over the Taiwan media coverage of the unsettled issue, while dubbing some press reports as being unfair to him.
On the part of Yen, he told Supachai that it was unacceptable for Taiwan to see the English title of its permanent mission changed unilaterally by the secretariat in the WTO directory, insiders said.
Back in February, Supachai proposed to change the English title of Taiwan's mission to "Office of Permanent Representative" in the so-called "Blue Book."
The publication of the "Blue Book," which is supposed to be updated in April, has been delayed due to the dispute, Yen has said.
The WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell was not immediately available for comment when contacted yesterday.
Monday's meeting was deemed as informal and the solution to the yet-to-be resolved issue would have to wait until a second meeting with Supachai later this month, sources said.
Foreign ministry officials, who declined to be named, said that Monday's meeting has affected Supachai's original schedule to meet with Yen and other Taiwanese officials on Thursday.
Thursday's appointment has been rescheduled to a later date, one official said.
Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (
Supachai during the meeting also recognized the performance of Taiwan's permanent mission to the world trade regulatory body, according to Yen.
Since the issue arose in February, officials have taken the unresolved diplomatic tug of war to Washington, Geneva, Bern and Southeast Asian capitals in an attempt to conduct various lobbying efforts, insiders revealed.
Meanwhile, the second point of Supachai's "five-point" request was to urge Taiwan to change its diplomatic titles on name cards and letterheads.
Yen said the third point asked the WTO Secretariat to "use only sovereignty-neutral terminology when referring to Taiwan," avoiding terms like country or state.
The fourth asked the secretariat to reserve the right to change in all documents any terminology that was not sovereignty-neutral.
The fifth, a message that was also passed on to the Swiss government, was "to affirm that the actions regarding WTO representation of Taiwan have no implications for sovereignty."
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