Two agricultural and industrial delegations signed letters of intent with their US counterparts in Washington on Thursday for various procurement plans.
The signing ceremony took place on Capitol Hill, with many members of the US Congress present.
The deals include a plan by state-owned Taiwan Power Co to procure US$100 million worth of nuclear power plant equipment from Westinghouse Electric Corp and plans by Taiwan's agricultural sector to procure US$3.9 billion worth of soybeans, corn, wheat and beef from the US.
The Taiwanese signatories of the agricultural deals included the Taiwan Vegetable Oil Manufacturers Association, the Taiwan Feed Industry Association and the Taiwan Flour Mills Association.
The American signatories were the US Grains Council, the US Wheat Associates, the American Soybean Association and the US Meat Export Federation.
Sun Ming-hsien (孫明賢), an ambassador-at-large for agricultural affairs who has served as leader of the agricultural delegation, noted that Taiwan and the US not only maintain close agricultural relations but also share a lot of common values.
Sun said he hoped that the strong agricultural relations between the two countries would lead eventually to the establishment of a Taiwan-US free trade agreement.
Bureau of Foreign Trade Director-General Huang Chih-peng (黃志鵬), leader of the industrial delegation, said that all the members of his delegation are representatives of important state-owned enterprises and that they are expected to procure products worth a total of US$11.34 billion from the US over the next few years.
During the visit, the state-owned CPC Corp, Taiwan signed a memorandum with Honeywell International in Houston for the procurement of petrochemical processing and control equipment worth US$1 billion, while the Aerospace Industrial Development Corp signed contracts in Los Angeles and New York for the procurement of aircraft components and chemicals worth a total of US$28 million.
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