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No WHA observer status anytime soon

As Taiwan ramps up its bid to gain observer status in next month’s meeting of the World Health Assembly (WHA), the US State Department has warned that it would not be achieving that goal any time in the foreseeable future.

In an internal report to US Congress, a copy of which was obtained by the Taipei Times, the department said that the “residual effect” of last year’s bid by Taipei for full membership in the WHO — which the US opposed — added to China’s powerful opposition to Taiwan’s participation in WHO activities, would keep Taiwan from gaining observer status soon.

And while the department said the administration of US President George W. Bush still supported Taiwan’s right to be an observer at the annual WHA meetings, it did not pledge that the US would take concrete steps at the coming meeting to achieve that goal.

The report, prepared under a law enacted by Congress in 2004, was sent to US Vice President Dick Cheney in his role as president of the Senate on March 17, five days before the presidential election and forwarded to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, but its existence was not disclosed until Monday.

“Given the residual effects of Taiwan’s 2007 membership bid on the positions of WHO member states and the WHO secretariat, and given the PRC’s [People’s Republic of China] stance on Taiwan in international organizations, observer status will have to remain a long-term objective,” the report said.

The department did say, on the other hand, that over the past year it has lobbied hard with Beijing to stop its attempts to isolate Taiwan from the WHO and other international bodies.

“The United States has reminded the PRC on a number of occasions throughout 2007 of the foundations of our one China policy, including in letters from HHS [Health and Human Services] Secretary [Michael] Leavitt to his PRC counterpart and has made clear that we would be concerned if political or nomenclature issues prevented meaningful participation by Taiwan’s experts in bodies such as the WHO, where Taiwan has knowledge to contribute and where its exclusion could lead to gaps in public health coverage,” the department said.

At the upcoming WHA meeting, to be held from May 17 through May 24, the department said the US would “coordinate closely with like-minded nations so that we can effectively express our dissatisfaction with lack of meaningful participation for Taiwan’s experts in the work of the WHO,” the report said.

“Our frequent public statements, including those made in the course of the January 2008 WHO Executive Board meeting on the need for universal application of the IHRs [International Health Regulations], as well as Deputy Secretary of State [John] Negroponte’s February 2008 call on the PRC [People’s Republic of China] to give additional international space to Taiwan are in line with our longstanding commitment to finding practical ways to advance Taiwan’s participation in the work of the WHO, in order to bring about improvements to global public health and ensure that gaps and deficiencies are closed,” it said.

In adopting the IHR in 2005, China forced the WHO secretariat to sign a memorandum of understanding that recognized Taiwan as a province of China and required the organization to send any communications for Taiwan through Beijing for China to pass on to Taipei.

In its report, the department complained that “Taiwan has yet to gain any status” under the IHR or the companion initiative, the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, “both of which the United States has promoted as appropriate activities for Taiwan,” the department said.

The 2004 law called on the US secretary of state to develop a plan to “obtain” observer status for Taiwan at the WHA meetings, instruct the US delegation to implement that plan, and introduce a resolution backing Taiwan’s observer status at the WHA summit.

It also calls for annual reports to Congress describing progress on that plan, including US efforts to convince WHO members to promote Taiwan’s observer bid and “the steps the secretary of state will take to endorse and obtain observer status” at the next WHA meeting.

As in recent reports, the current document does not address these directly, failing to say whether the US will lobby in favor of a vote on observer status, cast a yes vote or introduce a pro-Taiwan resolution itself.

However, unlike last year’s report, which expressed opposition to any vote at the WHA even on Taiwan’s observer status, this year’s report does not oppose such a vote.

Last year, the department said it felt Taiwan would suffer an overwhelming defeat in a vote, and that the size of the defeat would set back Taiwan’s efforts to eventually become an observer.

The US also voted against putting Taiwan’s membership bid on the WHA agenda, but emphasized US efforts to achieve what the Bush administration terms “meaningful participation” in the work of the WHO.

After last year’s meeting, the US held “numerous strategy sessions with like-minded states and WHO secretariat officials with the aim of finding ways to bring about Taiwan’s meaningful participation in appropriate activities of the WHO,” the report says.
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