Taiwan and the US are still discussing when to hold the next round of talks under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said yesterday.
“We’re still discussing it with the US,” Department of North American Affairs Director-General Kelly Hsieh (謝武樵) told a regular news briefing.
Hsieh was responding to questions on the timing of the major trade talks between Taiwan and the US, which have been held in March or April the past two years.
Minister of Economic Affairs John Deng (鄧振中) previously said that it was unlikely that the next round of TIFA talks would be held this month, despite having said in February, during a visit to the US, that the talks would take place this month.
Deng said the delay was because the US has focused its trade negotiation efforts on issues such as finishing negotiations on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade bloc.
There were also suspicions that the delay might be related to Taiwan’s resistance to expanding imports of US beef and pork, but Hsieh did not say yesterday whether they factored into the delay, saying only that the government has had a consistent stance on the issue.
He said Taiwan will continue its ban on imports of cow internal organs from the US, but will move to open its doors to six other kinds of beef parts from the US as long as their safety is ensured.
Taiwan will also maintain its ban on imports of US pork that contains traces of ractopamine, a veterinary leanness-enhancing drug banned in the nation, Hsieh said.
Taiwan also previously prohibited imports of beef containing ractopamine, but it lifted the ban in July 2012, setting the stage for the resumption of TIFA talks in March 2013 after a six-year suspension caused largely by the dispute over beef imports from the US.
The TIFA was signed in 1994 as a framework for Taiwan-US dialogue on trade-related issues. The last round of TIFA talks were held in Washington in April last year.
Asked about a recent report in which US officials suggested that Taiwan address the beef and pork issues if it wanted to speed up the process of joining the TPP, Hsieh said Taiwan understands Washington’s stance.
Both sides will continue to negotiate, he said, adding that bilateral communication under the TIFA is smooth.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a
RSS