U.S. and Taiwan (2009)

U.S. Department of State

Preview of the November APEC Meetings in Singapore

Kurt Tong
Senior Official for APEC, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Foreign Press Center
Washington, DC
November 3, 2009

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QUESTION: Thank you. John Zang with CTI-TV of Taiwan. Will there be opportunities for bilateral talks on bilateral trade issues? I'm asking this because the United States and Taiwan have recently signed a beef import agreement, which has generated a lot of controversy in Taiwan. Will there be opportunities for the two sides to revisit the issue during -- on the sidelines of the APEC? Thank you.

MR. TONG: Well, on that specific issue, I don't know whether the right personalities, the right officials will be in Singapore or not to discuss that specific issue. Generally every time that I participate in APEC meetings as a senior official, I always meet with my counterparts from Chinese -- Taipei. And we review the entire range of issues related to APEC. And so there will probably be opportunities for the U.S. to meet with a number of economies bilaterally in Singapore and have a chance for discussions. That takes place sometimes in a formal setting, sometimes an informal setting. Sometimes you're walking down the hall and a counterpart from some economy comes up and says, hey, what about this. So there's lots of opportunities for people to bounce ideas off each other.

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