The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday denied that the AIT was “menacing” Taiwan, as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) put it, by tying a resumption of trade talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) to the US beef issue.
Whether Taiwan would allow imports of US beef containing residues of the leanness-enhancing animal feed additive ractopamine was an issue affecting relations between Taiwan and the US, AIT spokesperson Christopher Kavanagh said.
“To say that we are threatening [Taiwan], I think, no, clearly no,” Kavanagh said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Kavanagh also denied the DPP’s claims about an exchange of interests between Washington and Taipei in which the US nominated Taiwan as a candidate for its visa-waiver program three weeks before the January presidential election, according to the DPP, to boost President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election chance in return for the Ma administration’s promise to lift the import ban.
“No, there is absolutely no relation between visa waiver and beef. Visa waiver is governed under US laws and a country has to meet requirements of the laws to move forward in the process. It has nothing to do with beef, absolutely nothing,” he said.
“But beef, we can say that it has been a stumbling block in our trade agenda with Taiwan. Beef was the only factor which thwarted our efforts to resume our TIFA talks in 2010 and in 2011 ... We hope to resume TIFA talks as soon as possible,” Kavanagh added.
Initiated by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), several party lawmakers met with AIT Director William Stanton on Tuesday to get a better idea of how lifting the ban would benefit the country in the advancement of bilateral relations.
The lawmakers told the press that the US would resume TIFA talks once the beef issue is resolved and a resolution of the issue would facilitate Taiwan’s inclusion in the US’ visa-waiver program and participation in a regional trade bloc.
At a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee yesterday, DPP Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) lambasted the US for what he said was Washington’s blatant intimidation by stalling the TIFA talks while the beef issue remains unresolved.
DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) suspected a “backroom deal” between the Ma administration and the US as she said the government was “offering up the public’s health as a sacrifice” in exchange for progress on issues such as the visa waiver and TIFA negotiations.
In response, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tung Kuo-yu (董國猷) said the US did not pressure Taiwan to begin importing US beef containing residues of ractopamine and reiterated that the Ma administration has not made any promises to the US on the beef issue.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS