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AIT head says US has no favorite

American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Stephen Young yesterday said that the US had no preference for any candidate for next year's presidential election and would continue to work with the next president.

Young made the remarks in a press conference addressing US concerns about recent developments in Taiwan.

Young said that the US followed the presidential primaries and kept up with the campaign platforms proposed by potential candidates.

"We have no favorite for the 2008 presidential elections and we will respectfully share our sense of core American interests with Taiwan's leaders," Young said.

When asked by the Taipei Times how the US government would deal with a situation in which the four Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) primary candidates say they would not honor President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) "four noes and one without," pledge, Young said the pledge had been proposed by Chen himself and the US had not asked him to make any promise in his inauguration speech in 2000.

Young said he understood that candidates needed to provide viewpoints on many issues during the campaign season, adding that he had contacted the candidates to hear their ideas.

look forward

"We look forward to meeting the DPP candidate and the [Chinese Nationalist Party] KMT candidate once their parties have respectively formalized their selection," he said.

As for the economic issue of Taiwan's signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US, Young said that Taiwan might want to focus first on the trade and investment framework agreement (TIFA) talks to be held in summer, which might be a basis for signing an FTA.

Young pointed out that three agreements were being negotiated between Taiwan and the US: a bilateral investment agreement; a bilateral tax agreement; and a bilateral government procurement agreement.

fta negotiations

"Basically what we face is that in less than two months the trade promotion which Congress has granted to the executive branch expires. Without extension by the Congress of that authority the administration would not be in a position to open up FTA negotiations with anybody, including Taiwan," he said.

"We are going to focus our attention on the TIFA process, which is actually very vital and which is not only improving our overall bilateral trade relationship, but could be seen as building blocks for an FTA at some future date," Young said.
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