TAIWAN WELCOMES TIFA MEETING

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 000869 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE PASS USTR STATE FOR EAP/TC, USTR FOR WINTER AND WINELAND, USDOC FOR 4431/ITA/MAC/AP/OPB/TAIWAN/JDUTTON USDA/FAS FOR WETZEL, MIRELES E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRD TW SUBJECT: TAIWAN WELCOMES TIFA MEETING REF: STATE 41597 ¶1. AIT Econ Chief delivered reftel talking points proposing a US-Taiwan TIFA Joint Council meeting to Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (Ruey-long) on March 16. Chen immediately agreed to the conditions of coordinating and agreeing on the substance of any public announcement/press points and not characterizing it as an FTA meeting. Chen said he would very much welcome Deputy USTR Karan Bhatia and AUSTR Tim Stratford to Taiwan along with other US representatives. ¶2. Chen further agreed to Taiwan participating in pre-TIFA meetings in order to work towards ensuring concrete deliverables during the TIFA meeting. Chen clearly preferred to hold any pre-TIFA meetings in Taipei, saying that he would not be able to commit to him personally traveling to Washington for pre-TIFA meetings. Noting there are only two months until the meeting, Chen requested that the US side provide a detailed agenda item as soon as possible. He emphasized that he would need to undertake interagency meetings to reach consensus on any issues that the US would like to raise. To ensure a successful meeting, he said that he would need to have a comprehensive list of issues that the US would like to resolve. When asked what issues Taiwan would like to place on the table, Chen said Taiwan's list is very short: FTA. ¶3. Comment: AIT will send a separate message with suggestions for issues to be included on the US agenda. End Comment. KEEGAN