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US' new trade policy favors Taiwan: officials

Taiwanese officials in the US are optimistic that a recently concluded trade policy agreement between the Bush administration and the Democratic-led Congress will give Taiwan an important advantage over other countries if and when the US begins to consider a new round of free trade agreement (FTA) partners.

The heads of Taiwan's 11 Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Offices (TECRO) throughout the US convened in Washington on Tuesday to compare notes with Taiwan's leading Washington representatives on strategy to take the best advantage of the new trade agreement and to exchange notes on what each of the participants are doing to advance the nation's trade interests.

The administration of US President George W. Bush has so far refused to consider an FTA with Taiwan, a major priority in bilateral relations of the government of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁). With a key US law that has facilitated a spate of recent FTAs with other countries about to expire at the end of next month, the Bush administration has suspended all FTA moves until the fate of the law is decided.

The Republican administration wants to extend the law -- the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), or Fast Track -- but the Democrats have generally been against a renewal. Last week, however, after months of bickering, the two sides reached an agreement with the Republicans conceding that labor, environmental and other protections that the Democrats have long sought be included.

That should be very good for Taiwan, which meets or exceeds global labor and environmental standards, while several countries with which Washington has inked FTAs do not, Taiwanese officials contend.

"We in Taiwan are very confident that as far as labor and environmental conditions are concerned, Taiwan should not have problems incorporating the requirements into a future trade deal," Francis K. H. Liang (梁國新), director of the TECRO's economic division in Washington told the Taipei Times after the meeting with regional directors.

"We want to be sure that we are prepared and have convinced the US government that when they are considering the next round of FTA partners -- when they receive trade authorization through the TPA, or in any other form -- Taiwan would be on the priority list," Liang said.

In the Tuesday TECRO conference, which was chaired in part by Taiwan's de-facto ambassador to the US Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), the Washington side heard from the 11 regional heads on their "experience and progress in promoting private industrial support for the bilateral trade deal," a TECRO press release said.

The regional heads, in turn, were briefed by TECRO officers on new developments in US trade policy, including the so-called "new trade policy" announced by Congress and the administration, as well as the political debate on the extension of the TPA and details of a newly introduced concurrent resolution in the House of Representatives on bilateral FTAs, the news release said.

The Bush-Congress trade agreement includes for the first time legally enforceable labor conditions embodied in the declaration of the principles of the International Labor Office and seven international conventions on the environment and related issues, Liang said. Those provisions would guarantee workers the right to organize, ban child labor and prohibit forced labor.

However, Taiwanese officials conceded that labor and environmental issues were only a small part of the entire FTA equation. China's opposition to a US-Taiwan FTA and continuing trade tensions between Taipei and Washington, including on intellectual property issues, must be overcome before Taiwan can hope for any FTA with Washington.
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