Montana is to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Taiwanese government tomorrow to enhance ties between the two sides, particularly in the area of trade, Montana Governor Steve Bullock said yesterday in Taipei.
Leading a delegation from the US state’s agricultural sector, Bullock is also to meet President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to talk about expanding opportunities for exchanges in trade, investment, education and culture between the western US state and Taiwan.
Despite an economic slowdown, Taiwan’s demand for agricultural products such as grains remains robust, Bullock said in an interview.
“Our relationship with Taiwan is certainly stand-alone, beyond any economic slowdowns, and I want to ensure that relationship continues and only strengthens,” he said.
Bullock said he hoped to see an increase in bilateral trade opportunities “not just for today, but for tomorrow.”
Montana exports mainly chemicals, minerals and ores, agricultural products, machinery and nonmetallic mineral products, with total exports reaching US$1.5 billion last year.
Taiwan is the seventh-largest buyer of products from Montana, after Canada, South Korea, China, Mexico, Switzerland and Japan.
However, Taiwan’s economy has been slowing down, with growth projected to reach only 1.5 percent this year, according to US banking firm Citigroup.
The local think tank Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research also recently lowered its prediction for this year’s GDP growth from 3.04 percent to 0.9 percent, citing falling exports.
Bullock’s visit to Taiwan is part of a trade mission from Saturday last week to Friday that includes a stop in South Korea.
Bullock said that when he visited Taiwan a few years ago as Montana’s attorney general, he was impressed with the culture and people, and thought they could contribute significantly to bilateral trade, education and cultural cooperation.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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