PUSHING TAIWAN ON DOHA & TRADE

C O N F I D E N T I A L TAIPEI 002262 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/RSP/TC AND EB/TPP/MTA STATE PASS USTR FOR ALTBACH GENEVA FOR USTR - SHARK USDA FAS FOR ITP/SHEIKH E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/30/2010 TAGS: ETRD ECON TW SUBJECT: PUSHING TAIWAN ON DOHA & TRADE REF: A. TAIPEI 2225 ¶B. SECSTATE 104561 ¶C. SECSTATE 103616 Classified By: AIT ACTING DIRECTOR DAVID KEEGAN FOR REASON 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (U) AIT Acting Director, Acting Deputy Director and Econ Chief delivered the demarche in reftel B to Vice Premier Tsai Ing-wen and newly appointed Taipei Economic and Cultural Relations Office (TECRO) Deputy Chief John C.C. Deng over dinner on June 29. AIT urged Taiwan to step forward in the upcoming meetings on the Doha Development Round and push for significant liberalization of agricultural trade and, per reftel C, to improve its services offer. The Acting Director emphasized that Taiwan's participation in the G-10 and its desire for continued special treatment for trade in agricultural products stands in marked contrast to Taiwan's progressive stance on trade in manufactured goods. ¶2. (C) Tsai and Deng took our message on board, but did not make any commitments as to actions Taiwan might take. Tsai observed that given Taiwan's membership in the G-10, it is now very late in the process for it to withdraw. (Comment: We will continue to urge Taiwan to take a leading role in the WTO Doha Development Round negotiations, but we think it unlikely there will be any significant changes in Taiwan's position for the upcoming meetings in Geneva. As reported in reftel A, AIT delivered the same two demarches to Board of Foreign Trade Director General Franco Huang on June 27 and Huang said Taiwan has already decided not to send anyone from Taipei for the meetings but will ask its WTO Ambassador Lin Yi-fu to represent Taipei's views. End Comment). ¶3. (C) As part of the conversation on trade issues, AIT also urged Tsai to direct Taiwan ministries to follow through aggressively to implement the commitments reached during the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) talks held in Taipei may 25 - 26. In particular, we urged strong follow-up on establishing the Consultative Committee on Agriculture (CCA),pharmaceutical pricing and intellectual property talks. We noted that AIT has already presented CCA materials to the Council of Agriculture, but has not yet had any response. We also advised Tsai that AIT met with the U.S. Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association and Taiwan's Bureau of National Health Insurance in preparation for pharmaceutical pricing talks. Tsai agreed that it would be important to follow through on the progress made at the TIFA talks. Deng commented that he would also work on these issues from his position at TECRO. KEEGAN