VZCZCXYZ0002
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHIN #3016/01 2440338
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 010338Z SEP 06
FM AIT TAIPEI
TO RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC PRIORITY 2558
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1903
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC

UNCLAS AIT TAIPEI 003016 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
FAS FOR ITP/AAD/SHEIKH, MIRELES AND SMITHUS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/RSP/TC AND EB/TPP/ABT 
STATE PASS AIT/W 
STATE PASS USTR FOR ERIC ALTBACH, TIM WINELAND 
 
 
 
 
DOC FOR 4431/ITA/MAC/AP/OPB/TAIWAN/JDUTTON 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAGR ETRD TW
 
SUBJECT: TAIWAN TIFA FOLLOW UP - AGRICULTURE 
 
 
¶1. Summary.  Official reaction to both the discovery of trace levels 
of biotech rice in the U.S. and our response to Taiwan's audit of 
U.S. beef packing plants has been as good as could have been 
expected.  In TIFA follow-up talks, however, the Council of 
Agriculture (COA) sought to downgrade the proposed Consultative 
Committee (CCA) by deleting "policy recommendations" and "market 
access" issues from the scope of the CCA. Negotiations over WTO 
notification procedures to establish a country specific rice quota 
made some progress, but the issue is still unresolved. End Summary. 
 
Biotech Rice - 
 
¶2. Reaction to the discovery of trace amounts of the Liberty Link 
601 Rice event in long grain rice in the southern United States has 
been limited.  Local industry and government sources confirm that 
Taiwan has only imported short grain rice from the U.S. in the past. 
 On August 21, 2006, Taiwan imposed a temporary suspension on long 
grain rice imports from the U.S.  Department of Health officials 
informed us they were under pressure from above to follow the ban 
put in place by Japan.  They pointed out that Taiwan's temporary 
suspension is less severe than the Japanese ban.  Press coverage has 
been limited and factual.  The Taiwan Department of Health has been 
very flexible on documentation requirements to establish that future 
rice shipments from the U.S. are not long grain varieties.  The 
requirements will also be based on the loading date.  While 
officials at the Council of Agriculture voiced concerns over the 
possibility that long grain rice might be present in processed rice 
products, officials at the Department of Health did not raise the 
issue. 
 
Rice CSQ notification procedure - 
 
¶3. Negotiations on a procedure to notify the WTO of a Country 
Specific Quota (CSQ) for Taiwan's public sector rice imports were 
advanced in discussions between USTR's Director of China and Taiwan 
Affairs Tim Wineland and Chinese Taipei's Ag Consular to the WTO 
Susan Chang on August 21, 2006.  While most substantive issues 
involving the establishment of a CSQ and several other head-note 
changes to Taiwan's rice schedule have been resolved for several 
months, Chinese Taipei has not notified the WTO of the CSQ due to 
procedural differences between Chinese Taipei and the U.S., 
Australia, and Thailand.  A possible agreement on notification 
procedures that would protect U.S. interests was discussed at the 
meeting and will be reviewed by USTR legal staff.  Taiwan's key 
interest appears to be having the objections to the tariff schedule 
portion of its old rice schedule lifted so that other parties do not 
have the opportunity to object to its high out-of-quota rice tariff 
rate. 
 
Consultative Committee on Agriculture- 
 
¶4. The Council of Agriculture (COA) in their reply to the U.S. draft 
MOU and Terms of Reference for the TIFA Consultative Committee on 
Agriculture sought to significantly narrow the scope of the 
Committee.  Their counterproposal deleted language that stipulated 
that the CCA had the authority to make policy recommendations and to 
discuss market access issues.  The US delegation led by Deputy 
Assistant USTR Eric Altbach raised our objections with a COA 
delegation headed by Wen-Deh Chen, Director General of the 
Department of International Affairs at COA. He pointed out that 
discussing market access issues and policy recommendations was the 
main point of establishing the CCA and that without that broad 
mandate, it was difficult to envision high-level U.S. interest in 
the CCA. 
 
¶5.  USDA will respond formally to COA's proposed text, and the 
Minister of COA has instructed his staff to agree to CCA documents 
by the end of October.  Other Taiwan ministries are more 
enthusiastic about this proposal. 
 
Delivery of U.S. Response to Taiwan's Beef Audit Report - 
 
¶6. Taiwan Department of Health (DOH) officials generally reacted 
positively to the U.S. response to their audit report.  Pending 
review by a formal committee of scientific experts, DOH Officials 
initially accepted USDA's responses to the principle issues raised 
in the audit report - the segregation of Canadian cattle and the 
used of dedicated saws. The DOH said that they will provide our 
office with a formal response in the coming weeks. 
 
¶7. Based on a DOH visit to the US last April, Taiwan objected to the 
slaughter of Canadian cattle in the U.S. for export to Taiwan and 
insisted that dedicated saws be used for animals above and below the 
age of 30 months that were going to be exported to Taiwan.  The U.S. 
industry has agreed to segregate Canadian cattle so that they are 
not immediately slaughtered and shipped to Taiwan.  This will no 
longer be necessary once Taiwan reopens its market to Canadian beef, 
a process that will probably be delayed by the recent discovery of 
Canada's eighth BSE case.  After some objections, the officials 
accepted our reasoning for allowing sanitation to be used in place 
of dedicated saws. 
 
YOUNG