Seventy-four public and private-sector leaders in the US have voiced support for Taipei’s move to ease restrictions on US beef and pork imports, but no concrete steps have yet been taken toward a bilateral trade agreement (BTA), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Removing the trade barriers is a key step for Taiwan in starting trade talks with the US, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said on Friday.
The decision is not related to the US presidential election in November, Tsai said when fielding questions from the media at the Presidential Office in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
As of yesterday noon, 74 leaders from US political, business and academic circles had expressed support for Taiwan’s trade policy, Department of North American Affairs Director-General Douglas Hsu (徐佑典) told a news conference in Taipei.
“We look forward to the timely implementation of these actions, which will provide greater access for US farmers to one of East Asia’s most vibrant markets and for Taiwan consumers to high-quality US agricultural products. President Tsai’s vision and leadership in removing these long-standing barriers open the door to greater economic and trade cooperation between the United States and Taiwan,” US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement on Friday.
US Vice President Mike Pence, US National Security Council Adviser Robert O’Brien, US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross, US Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, as well as US senators and representatives across party lines welcomed Tsai’s announcement.
Antony Blinken, a foreign policy adviser to former US vice president Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, wrote on Twitter: “Taiwan’s move to lift trade barriers is good for American farmers, ranchers and our economy. Stronger economic ties with Taiwan also support our shared democratic values, and our common commitment to regional peace and stability.”
However, it is not certain if the US has promised anything in exchange for Tsai advancing the controversial policy.
Lifting the long-time trade barriers means opening “a window of opportunity” for negotiations, which is just the “first step, and there is no so-called content before trade talks start,” Hsu said when asked if the US has proposed any beneficial trade conditions for Taiwan.
“Can USTR [US Trade Representative Robert] Lighthizer welcome this move, too?” asked Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, as she retweeted Pompeo’s statement.
Lighthizer on Monday participated in a scheduled call with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (劉鶴) to discuss the “phase one” trade deal between Washington and Beijing, with both sides expressing support for continuing the agreement.
Asked if Lighthizer’s conversation with Liu would affect Taiwan-US trade talks, Hsu said that he could not speak on their behalf.
Taipei had been discussing the possibility of a BTA with various US agencies and members of the US Congress, while Washington had frequently signaled that restrictions on US pork imports needed to be eased first, which has frustrated local officials, he said.
Hopefully, the decision to lift the barriers would remove the “pretext” and allow bilateral trade negotiations to advance, he added.
In the first half of this year, Taiwan surpassed France and India in total trade volume with the US, becoming its ninth-largest trading partner, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US said in a statement on Friday.
“While semiconductor equipment and ICT [information and communications technology] products are among the fastest-growing in two-way trade, Taiwan is the seventh-largest export market for US agricultural products,” it said.
A BTA between Taiwan and the US would be strategically and economically significant, the statement quoted Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) as saying.
“Strategically, Taiwan is a dynamic, indispensable and like-minded partner of the US in the Indo-Pacific region and Taiwan’s economic resilience is critical to its survival as a beacon of democracy,” she said. “Both of our governments are eager to attract investment that will create jobs and this agreement would be a strong signal of confidence to businesses in both of our countries. It is a win-win situation.”
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying