U.S.-Taiwan Talks Fail to Gain More Open Markets

U.S. and Taiwan officials ended three days of trade talks today without reaching agreement on U.S. requests for Taiwan to further open its markets.

Sandy Kristoff, assistant U.S. trade representative, said the American delegation was disappointed at Taiwan’s refusal to end import bans on high-value U.S. agricultural products and alcoholic beverages and its restrictions on U.S. insurance firms.

Kristoff, head of the American delegation, said in a statement that her delegation also was concerned about the slow progress Taiwan has made in the protection of intellectual property rights.

Although Taiwan signed an agreement last year to regulate the showing of pirated U.S. films in popular video parlors, she said, “implementation and enforcement efforts have not been as rigorous as expected.”

But Sheu Ke-sheng, director general of Taiwan’s Board of Foreign Trade, told reporters Taiwan must avoid opening its market too rapidly to avoid causing harm to local companies.

Kristoff said Taiwan had made “overall progress” on the implementation of a four-year action plan to reduce its trade surplus with the United States.

Under the plan, Taiwan proposed to reduce its trade surplus by at least 10% each year and cut import tariffs to an average 7% in 1992.

Taiwan cut import tariffs on more than 4,500 items last year under U.S. pressure and the rates average about 9.65% now.