Taiwan signs US$5 billion in purchase agreements with U.S.

The seven letters of intent were signed by Taiwan’s industrial and trade delegation and its agricultural delegation with the U.S. government Thursday at Capitol Hill in Washington, the Broadcasting Corp of China (BCC) reported.

Under the agreements, Taiwan in the next two years would buy US$3.9 billion of U.S. soybeans, maize, wheat and meat, up US$800 million from 2005 agreements.

Industrial purchases for items like oil and coal are to come to US$1.1 billion.

Huang Chih-peng, director of Taiwan’s Bureau of Foreign Trade, told the BCC that the trade delegation travelled to the United States to tell Washington that Taiwan has a strong desire to boost purchases from the United States and wants to sign a free trade agreement.

Taiwan is the United States’ eighth-largest trading partner with two-way trade totalling US$760 billion in 2006. Taiwan has been pushing the United States to sign a trade pact for several years, but Washington is reluctant to do so for fear of irking China, which sees Taiwan as a breakaway province.

Taiwan sends an agricultural purchase delegation to the United States every two years and an industrial and trade delegation every a few years.

Attending Thursday’s signing ceremonies were several members of the U.S. Congress and Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s representative to the United States, the BCC said.

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