Brian McDonald has been formally accredited as the EU's first trade representative to Taiwan and is slated to reach Taipei early next month to take up his post, sources said yesterday.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official, who declined to be named, said McDonald's accreditation was finalized a few days ago and he should arrive in Taipei "in the first week of March."
When Emma Udwin, spokeswoman for EU External Affairs Commissioner Chris Patten was contacted by telephone yesterday about McDonald's appointment, she said that she had no information on the matter.
Late last night, an official in Udwin's office clarified that "there's no confirmation nor denial" about the appointment.
The official said the appointment process is still ongoing.
However, another EU source said McDonald is slated to reach Taipei "within the next two weeks."
Foreign ministry officials said the EU has decided not to announce McDonald's appointment in an attempt to maintain a low-key stance on the opening of its economic and trade office in Taipei, for fear of irritating Beijing.
The establishment of the Taipei office comes on the heels of the EU's opening of the European Commission (EC) delegation office in Singapore. Sources said the Taipei office will be located in the Union Bank Building, next door to the Sherwood Hotel Taipei.
McDonald, an Irish national, currently serves as the principal administrator of the EC Directorate General for Trade.
McDonald has worked with the EC since 1973 and has served as coordinator of Asia trade policy. He was the first counselor at the EC's office in Hong Kong from 1995 to 1997 and councilor at the EC's delegation to the UN from 1989 to 1995.
Before that he was advisor and deputy chief of the EC's delegation to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Energy Agency.
He is author of The World Trading System: The Uruguay Round and Beyond.
In an interview last month in the European Voice, a Brussels-based weekly journal, Patten touched upon the nature of the Taipei office.
"It will be an economic and trade office, and it will cover the full range of areas where we have a relationship with Taiwan, including science, technology and education," Patten was quoted as saying.
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