EFE.- Taiwan and the United States concluded a round of trade negotiations with progress on agricultural issues, but without substantive agreements between both parties, said the head of the Trade Negotiations Office of the Executive Yuan (Government), John Deng.
During the talks, which began Monday and ended Friday in Taipei, Taiwanese government trade representatives expressed their intention to export pineapples and mangoes to the United States as soon as possible, in addition to other processed meat products, such as sausages and pork floss ( rousong).
“Exports of agricultural products require complicated and long-term negotiations. It took a decade for Taiwanese guava to enter the US market,” Deng stated at the end of the negotiations, according to the local newspaper Taipei Times.
In a press conference, the official stressed the need to find new export markets for Taiwanese pineapples and mangoes due to “pressure from China”, which has restricted the import of these fruits in recent years.
U.S. negotiators, led by Deputy U.S. Trade Representative for China, Mongolia and Taiwan Affairs Terry McCartin, insisted that Taipei relax regulations for importing pork from the United States, something that will be discussed again after the inauguration. of the elected president, William Lai (Lai Ching-te), given “the controversial nature” of the matter, Deng said.
The US side considers that Taiwan maintains “unnecessarily high” standards for the import of pork products, said the island official, who acknowledged the concern of the Taiwanese about the existence of ractopamine, a type of food additive, in such products.
According to figures from the US Department of Agriculture, Taiwan was the seventh largest market for agricultural products and derivatives from the United States last year, reaching a value of 3,744 million dollars (3,475 million euros).
According to this same organization, the United States was the main destination for Taiwanese agricultural exports in 2023 with 935 million dollars (868 million euros), which represented 17% of the island’s total agricultural sales abroad that year. anus.
Conversations about forced labor
Both delegations also addressed the issue of forced labor, a particularly sensitive issue for the Americans, who called on Taiwan to prevent such practices in their supply chains.
Deng ratified Taiwan’s will to put an end to the problem, although the island currently lacks legal tools and professionals to do so.
These negotiations, which will continue in the future through videoconferences, occurred within the framework of the so-called ‘EU-Taiwan Trade Initiative on Trade in the 21st Century’, launched in 2022 and under which the island and the North American country signed the year passed a first part of a partial trade agreement.
Although that agreement is far from being a free trade agreement, it has been described by Taipei as the most extensive trade pact between both sides since Washington established diplomatic ties with Beijing in 1979.
The Chinese government already expressed its opposition to the signing of that partial trade agreement last year, arguing that it is a violation of the “one China” policy.
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