U.S. urged not to retaliate against Taiwan over beef issue

Delaying talks on the proposed U.S.-Taiwan trade and investment framework agreement (TIFA) to force Taiwan to give in would be a “counterproductive approach,” said Rupert Hammond Chambers, president of the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council.

Such a strategy could harm Taiwan's trust for the U.S., which Taiwan also has been regarding as its most important trade market, Hammond-Chambers warned.

“A decade ago America was Taiwan's most important trading partner. When coupled with our security relationship and guarantees, it meant that there is no more important relationship for Taiwan than that with the U.S.,” he said.

The situation, however, is now changing, the business leader said in the Council's annual year-end report distributed Friday.

“China's economic importance to Taiwan has soared, and that relationship will soon be formalized in a free trade agreement,” Hammond-Chambers said.

“Meanwhile, America's increasing inability to maintain a credible and consistent security commitment undermines Taiwan's confidence in our resolve,” Hammond-Chambers added. “Couple that with our 'on again off again' trade policy, and we are doing a great deal to undermine broader U.S. interests in the market.”

In Taiwan, President Ma Ying-jeou has instructed his government to use every power to try to minimize any destructive impact on Taiwan's friendly relations with the United States that the lawmakers' decision could have.

Lawmakers of both the ruling and opposition parties reached consensus on Dec. 29 that no ground beef and bovine offal from the U.S. will be allowed to enter Taiwan.

The legislative decision contradicts a Taiwan-U.S protocol signed two months ago in which Taiwan agreed to open the market to previously-banned bone-in U.S. beef and some high-risk beef products, such as spine and eyes.

Citing a Financial Times report, Hammond-Chambers pointed out in his report that Taiwan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang had told legislators that “it was the Taiwan government's understanding that 'there is a certain interaction' between the beef ban and future U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.”

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