ECFA with China to help U.S. FTA: Yuan

Yuan made the remarks when delivering a report to a joint session of foreign affairs and national defense committees of the Legislative Yuan on the latest Taiwan-U.S. relations seen under the administration of the U.S. new President Barack Obama.

Yuan said Taiwan's rep office in Washington will step up efforts to reinforce substantive ties with the U.S., including pushing the inking of an extradition treaty and the FTA, promoting visa-free entry into the U.S. for people in Taiwan, promoting dialogue and exchange of visits between ranking officials of both sides, and seeking U.S. support to Taiwan's participation in international organizations, among others.

During the joint session, lawmakers Liu Sheng-liang and Chou Shou-hsun of the ruling Kuomintang voiced great concerns about the possibility of signing an FTA with the U.S. In response, Yuan said that the U.S. Congress was not so keen about the FTA issue, adding that U.S. congressmen friendly to Taiwan advised that Taiwan should manage to create harmonious harmony. "If we have signed an ECFA with China, they can more easily find solid reasons to push the U.S. government to sign FTA with Taiwan," Yuan told lawmakers.

Yuan continued that U.S. beef export to Taiwan has been one of the key bilateral economic and trade issues, and the U.S. side has requested Taiwan to follow international norms to resume across-the-board imports of beef products from the U.S.

As the Obama Administration has publicly expressed support for resuming exchanges between ranking Cabinet-level officials, Yuan said his rep office is actively promoting ranking U.S, trade and economic officials to visit Taiwan and reinforce dialogues on further upgrading bilateral economic and trade ties.

In addition, Yuan said his rep office will also move to help Taiwan enterprises join the U.S. government procurement projects, now that the island has been admitted into the Government Procurement Agreement.

On the same occasion, Andrew Li-yan Hsia, vice foreign affairs minister, said that the Obama Administration hasn't deviated from the U.S. long-term, consistent policies toward Taiwan, namely maintaining the one-China policy, sticking to three communiques between the U.S. and China as well as the Taiwan Relations Act.

In other words, Hsia continued, the U.S. recognizes and supports Taiwan's efforts in development of democracy, in expanding presence in international organizations, and in seeking peaceful solution of related issues across the Taiwan Strait.

Meanwhile, Yuan revealed that the U.S. government, in a recent report to the U.S. Congress, expressed recognition over Taiwan's efforts to strive for becoming an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA) and hoped that mainland China would not launch a boycott. 

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