Beef row derails 3 pacts with U.S.: official

"The Legislative Yuan's passage of a controversial amendment to the Act Governing Food Sanitation has also obstructed resumption of talks under the Taiwan-U.S. Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) , " said Francis Kuo-hsin Liang, vice minister of economic affairs.

The sub-Cabinet TIFA talks used to provide a good platform for regular dialogue between officials from both countries in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.

Such talks have been suspended since 2007 and were originally scheduled to resume early next month, Liang said in an interview with CNA.

However, Liang said the planned resumption of the talks in February has been postponed indefinitely after the legislature passed Tuesday legislation that will ban imports of certain beef products from countries with documented mad cow disease cases over the past decade.

The U.S. government has expressed grave concern about Taiwan's new legislation which will effectively bar U.S. ground beef, beef offal and other beef parts such as the skull, eyes and intestines from access to Taiwan's market, in contravention of a bilateral beef trade protocol signed by the two countries in October.

Liang, who concurrently heads the Office of Trade Negotiations under the Ministry of Economic Affairs, said it is very regrettable that the beef trade issue has cast a pall on the extremely important Taiwan-U.S. trade relations.

In the face of mounting regional economic integration and emergence of free-trade areas one after another, Liang said, Taiwan must catch up with the trend.

With the absence of formal diplomatic ties posing a stumbling block to Taiwan's pursuit of a free trade agreement with the United States, Liang said the government originally planned to adopt a "stacking toys" approach by negotiating three pacts to lay the groundwork for the eventual signing of an FTA deal.

According to the government's plan, Liang said Taiwan had intended to first negotiate with the U.S. a bilateral investment agreement (BIT) which, if struck, will help offset part of the possible adverse impact on Taiwan's industries once the U.S.-South Korea free trade agreement takes effect.

Moreover, Liang said, Taiwan also had planned to negotiate a technical barriers to trade (TBT) agreement with the U.S. to facilitate bilateral cooperation in product inspection and certification.

To facilitate development of Taiwan's electronics commerce, Liang said, the government had also expected to sign a cooperative pact in this regard.

"However, we now have to wait until clouds surrounding the beef trade are cleared to put these plans into action," he added.

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