Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) yesterday called on the US to resume trade talks with Taiwan, which have been hampered by a dispute over US beef imports early this year.
Yang made the call following the release on Wednesday of an annual report by the US Trade Representative (USTR) identifying foreign trade and investment barriers, including seven pages on Taiwan, covering issues of concern such as rice, beef, cooking rice wine and the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), among others.
“It was because of so many issues existing between the two sides that we need to restart negotiations as soon as possible so that the problems can be solved,” Yang said.
The US postponed resumption of the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) early this year after Taiwan in January banned US beef imports that contained residues of ractopamine, an animal feed additive to promote lean meat, and removed products from the shelves.
In the report, the US repeated its concern that Taiwan had not notified the WTO about the ECFA, which went into force on Jan. 1.
“WTO members are required to notify any bilateral or regional trade agreements to the WTO upon entry into force of the agreement,” the report said.
On the beef issue, the US said Taiwan maintains “unwarranted” sanitary and phytosanitary measures to create market access barriers to US products.
“Reopening Taiwan’s beef market consistent with international science-based standards as well as in a commercially viable manner is an important priority,” the report said.
It also said Taiwan “fell substantially short of meeting its rice purchase obligations” and failing to solve the problem with its ceiling price mechanism, which has continued to disrupt Taiwan’s tendering process for procurement of US rice.
Actions taken by Taiwan since September that characterized rice wine as a cooking wine rather than a distilled spirit, which significantly cut the tax and the price, were also a concern, which the US viewed as violations of Taiwan’s commitment to the WTO.
“The US and other trading partners continue to express their strong concerns to the Taiwan authorities that steps should be taken to ensure that the domestic mijiu rice wine will not compete with, or substitute for, similar imported alcoholic beverages, and that such beverages would not be taxed at a higher rate,” the report said.
On the issue of intellectual property rights protection, the report said that the importation and transshipments of counterfeit products from China was a problem, as well as the collusion of some Taiwan companies in supplying components to Chinese factories producing Shanzhai imitation and pirated goods, such as mobile phones, netbooks, and other electronic devices.
Bruce Linghu (令狐榮達), director-general of the ministry’s Department of North American Affairs, said both sides had not started negotiations on the possibility of resuming the TIFA talks since a scheduled resumption was called off in January.
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