Despite the fact that the US has announced that it will put forth a proposal at the WTO for global agricultural trade reform, the proposal is not expected to affect Taiwan in the short term.
US Trade Representative Robert Zorllick said on Thursday in Washington DC that his office and the Department of Agriculture have decided to put forward a proposal next week in Geneva to seek better and fairer international agricultural trade practices.
This follows US dissatisfaction with the huge differences between the amount of import custom duties imposed by the US on agricultural products and those imposed by other countries.
US custom duties on agricultural imports average only 12 percent, while most countries have raised their duties to an average of 62 percent, Zorllick said.
Under the proposal, tariffs would gradually be cut to the point where 25 percent of the volume of agricultural trade would have zero duties imposed, thereby reducing the average customs duties on agricultural trade from the current 62 percent to 15 percent.
In principle, the US proposal will not affect Taiwan in the short term because Taiwan has already promised to cut its custom duties on imports of agricultural products gradually, following its WTO accession.
Statistics show that Taiwan's current customs duties on agricultural imports average 20 percent, and will be cut to an average of 15.2 percent within the first year of WTO membership -- and then gradually to 12.9 percent.
The report said the US feels that Taiwan has kept its promises and has solved most of its trade-barrier problems following its WTO accession.
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