To further demonstrate Taiwan's determination in its promotion for negotiating a U.S.-Taiwan Free Trade Agreement through concrete actions that Taiwan has taken seriously its trade and economic relations with the U.S., an Agricultural Trade Goodwill Mission and an Industrial Trade Mission from Taiwan are scheduled to visit the United States from June 4th to 16th and from May 28th to June 8th respectively, both making a stop in Washington, D.C. from June 5th to 7th. During their sojourn here, the two Missions will sign 4 letters of intent to purchase as much as US$3.9 billion worth of U.S. agricultural products over the next two years and 3 contracts to purchase power plant's services and equipments.
After leaving Washington, D.C., the Agricultural Mission will split into three delegations: the soybean & corn delegation, the wheat (& barley) delegation and the meat delegation. The soybean & corn delegation will visit Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota, while the wheat delegation will visit South Dakota, Montana, Oregon and Idaho. The meat delegation will visit Georgia, Nebraska and Iowa. As for the Industrial Mission, it will visit Los Angeles, Houston and New York before arriving in Washington D.C.
This Agricultural Mission, led by Dr. Paul M. H. Sun, Ambassador at Large in agriculture and the Board Chair of Taiwan World Vegetable Center, consists of 18 members representing different agricultural interests in Taiwan. The Mission aims to demonstrate Taiwan's continuing willingness to purchase U.S. agricultural products, the quality of which has long been appreciated by Taiwan importers and consumers.
The Industrial Mission, led by Director General Chih-Peng Huang of Bureau of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Economic Affairs, is made of high-ranking economic officials and senior mangers from large-sized and reputable companies in Taiwan. The purchase amount of the Mission for this trip is up to US$127.09 million, with the intent to buy U.S. industrial products worth US$11.34 billion in the next few years.
While in Washington, D.C. the Missions plan to call on the Department of Agriculture, American Institute in Taiwan and key leaders in the Congress in agricultural and industrial trade. They will also attend the welcoming reception co-hosted by 7 export organizations of U.S. agricultural products and hold a news conference at the National Press Club. On the morning of Thursday, June 7 at Capitol Hill (Mansfield Room, S207), the Agricultural Mission will sign 4 letters of intent to purchase in 2008 and 2009 up to 15 million metric tons of U.S. wheat, soybeans and corn and up to 186,000 metric tons of U.S. beef, pork and poultry from U.S. suppliers. The total value of the aforementioned U.S. agricultural products to be exported to Taiwan amounts to US$3.9 billion. In addition, the Taiwan Power Company, Ltd. will sign contracts with Westinghouse Electric Company, Flowserve Corp. and Anderson Greenwood Crosby for buying $101.624 million worth of services and equipments for power plants.
When the last Taiwan Agricultural Trade Goodwill Mission visited Washington, D.C. in 2005, it signed letters of intent to purchase 14.5 million metric tons of U.S. wheat, soybeans and corn, and close to 6 million pieces of hide, with a total value of US$3.1 billion in 2006 and 2007.
Taiwan consumers have long appreciated high-quality American farm products. Even though Taiwan's procurement mission has been discontinued since 1993 after trade liberalization, Taiwan's private importers imported even more U.S. agricultural products since then. Currently Taiwan is the 5th largest overseas market for U.S. agricultural products. In particular, Taiwan is the 3rd largest overseas market for U.S. corn, the 5th largest for U.S. soybeans, the 7th largest for U.S. meat, and the 8th largest for U.S. wheat. In fact, U.S. grains account for 95% of Taiwan's total grain import.
This year, the Industrial Trade Mission is organized to further expand and strengthen Taiwan-U.S. trade and economic relations. In particular, Director General Chih-Peng Huang, Head of the Industrial Mission, will hold a roundtable discussion with the U.S. business and enterprises in order to garner their support of a Free Trade Agreement between Taiwan and the United States.
