Mr. Ding Mou-shih
Representative
Coordination Council for
North American Affairs
February 22, 1994
4201 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20016-2137
Dear Representative Ding:
This letter sets forth the AIT understanding of the results of
our tariff discussions of January 19 to 21, 1994. Your side will
take the following steps:
1.The industrial products contained in Annex 1 (attached) will
have their customs duties reduced to the rates listed therein
by means of Article 47-1 of your Custom Law by no later than
March 31, 1994. These reductions will be maintained at the sp-
ecified lower rates through legislation.
2.The agricultural products (HS chapters 1-24) contained in Ann-
ex 2 (attached) will have their customs duties reduced either
to the rates listed therein (part 1) or to levels reflecting a
bilateral trade-weighted average depth of cut of 12.5% (part 2
) by means of legislation. These duty reductions will be subm-
itted by the Executive Yuan to the Legislative Yuan no later
than May 15, 1994.
3.The industrial products (HS chapters 25-97) contained in Annex
3 (attached) will have their customs duties reduced either to
the rates listed therein (part 2) or to levels reflecting a b-
ilateral trade-weighted average depth of cut of 17.5% (part 2)
by means of legislation. These duty reductions will be submit-
ted by the Executive Yuan to the Legislative Yuan no later th-
an October 1, 1994.
The United States side expects that for the products listed in
Annex 2, the Executive Yuan will exert best efforts to secure e-
nactment by the Legislative Yuan no later than July 31, 1994, a-
nd for the products listed in,4nnex 3, the Executive Yuan will
exert best efforts to secure enactment by the Legislative Yuan
no later than January 31, 1995.
The tariff reductions that you have implemented will be taken i-
nto account in your GATT accession. In addition, in all cases,
the United States side reserves the right to seek further reduc-
tions in these and other items, as specified in U.S. GATT acces-
sion tariff requests of your side.
This letter to you and your letter in reply to it constitute our
mutual understanding with respect to the steps to be taken by y-
our side regarding the tariff reductions on certain products of
export interest to the United States. This understanding will e-
nable our two sides to expedite our bilateral consultations on
the GATT accession of the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan,
Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu.
Sincerely,
[Signed]
Natale H. Bellocchi
Chairman of the Board
and Managing Director
April 27,1994
Ambassador Natale H. Bellocchi
Chairman of the Board and Managing Director
American Institute in Taiwan
1700 N. Moore Street, #1700
Arlington, VA 22209
Dear Ambassador Bellocchi:
This letter confirms our mutual understanding as conveyed in yo-
ur letter of February 18, 1994 which sets forth the tariff redu-
ctions on certain products of export interest to the United Sta-
tes Pursuant to that understanding, we have taken or will take
the following steps:
1.The industrial products contained in Annex 1 (attached) have
had their customs duties reduced to the rates listed therein
by means of Article 47-1 of our Customs Law on March 30, 1994.
These reductions will be maintained at the specified, lower r-
ates through legislation.
2.The agricultural products (HS chapters 1-24) contained in Ann-
ex 2 (attached) will have their customs duties reduced either
to the rates listed therein (part 1) or to levels reflecting a
bilateral trade-weighted average depth of cut of 12.5% (part
2) by means of legislation. These duty reductions will be su-
bmitted by the Executive Yuan to the Legislative Yuan no lat-
er than May 15, 1994.
3.The industrial products (HS chapters 25-97)contained in Annex
3 (attached) will have their customs duties reduced either to
the rates listed therein (part 1) or to levels reflecting a b-
ilateral trade-weighted average depth of cut of 17.5% (part 2)
by means of legislation. These duty reductions will be submit-
ted by the Executive Yuan to the Legislative Yuan no later th-
an October 1, 1994.
While the Executive Branch will exert best efforts to secure
legislative enactment as soon as possible, it cannot make com-
mitments on behalf of the Legislative Yuan.
We expect that the tariff reductions that we have implemented
will be taken into account in our GATT accession. In addition,
we understand that the United States reserves the right to se-
ek further reductions in these and other items, as specified
in U.S. GA1YT accession tariff requests of our side. The mutu-
al understandings expressed in our exchange of letters will e-
nable our two sides to expedite our bilateral consultations on
the GATT accession of the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan
, Penghu, Kinmen and Matzu.
Sincerely,
[Signed]
Mou-Shih Ding
Representative