TAIWAN

Trade Pact With U.S. to Be Signed: Taiwan and the United States will sign an agreement to increase trade and investment when U.S. Trade Representative Carla Anderson Hills visits next month, a trade official said. The sides are still discussing parts of the non-binding pact, said Tsai Lien-sheng of the Board of Foreign Trade. Broadcasts said it might cover U.S. firms’ participation in Taiwan’s six-year, $300-billion development plan, and would pave the way for the two sides to sign a free trade treaty. Hills will be the first Cabinet-level U.S. official to visit Taiwan since Washington switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing from Taipei in 1979.