Sen. Lugar talked with Taiwan’s leaders.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee met with President Chiang Ching-kuo and other officials in Taipei. Afterward, the Indiana Republican was asked whether he had received any indication that the Taiwanese market will be opened up to U.S. products soon, and he replied: “No, I have not received the assurance I would like to receive.” Lugar said Chiang told him that Taiwan will open up its large construction projects to competition from the United States and that Taiwan will continue buying U.S. corn and wheat. But the senator made no mention of a threat by the Taiwan Corn Growers Joint Committee to boycott U.S. corn unless its U.S. counterpart gives “concrete assurances” that it would not support protectionist legislation before Congress.