Taipei, Aug. 27 (CNA) Taiwan is hoping to play a greater role as
Southeast Asian countries become more economically integrated with their
northern neighbors, the country's envoy to the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit in Russia said Monday.
Taiwan is looking to participate
in the process in which members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) are developing closer economic partnerships with China, Japan and South
Korea, Lien Chan said at a news conference.
"We conduct frequent
economic exchanges with ASEAN states and our relationships are good," said
Lien, who will depart for the Sept. 8-9 APEC leaders' summit on Sept. 6.
This year's summit will focus on
trade and investment liberalization, regional economic integration and food
security.
The former vice president and
honorary chairman of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) has been tapped for the fifth
consecutive year to serve as Taiwan's envoy to the APEC meeting. China opposes
the presence of Taiwan's president at the event.
Lien also said at the news
conference that he will take the opportunity to discuss trade issues with
officials from Taiwan's key trading partners, including China, Japan and the
United States, on the sidelines of the APEC meeting.
One of the issues he expects to
raise is the resumption of talks under the Taiwan-U.S. Trade and Investment
Framework Agreement (TIFA) during his meeting with American officials.
"We can discuss the timing
(of the talks), and (we) hope to re-open the TIFA platform as soon as
possible," he said.
Earlier Monday, at a meeting
between the APEC delegation and President Ma Ying-jeou, Ma asked Lien to bring
up the issue with U.S. officials and hoped talks under the TIFA could be
resumed by the end of this year.
The TIFA was signed in 1994 as a
framework for Taiwan-U.S. dialogue on trade-related issues in the absence of
diplomatic ties, but has been suspended since 2007 mainly because of
controversies over imports of American beef.
Taipei and Washington are expected
to re-open talks under the TIFA in the near future, after Taiwan agreed to open
its doors to U.S. beef containing the veterinary drug ractopamine, which was
previously banned in the country.
The U.S. has regarded Taiwan's
ractopamine ban as a trade barrier and has implied on numerous occasions that a
resumption of bilateral talks under the TIFA rests on the beef issue.
Meanwhile, Lien said he will
again express Taiwan's willingness to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP),
a multilateral free trade agreement that aims to further liberalize the
economies of the Asia-Pacific region, in eight years.
Elaine Hou
Business & Investment Opportunities
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