Taiwan Official Calls for Admission To WTO and WHO

          In his final public remarks in Atlanta, Andrew Kao, the former director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) here, called for both China and Taiwan’s admittance to the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organizations. 

          Mr. Kao, who served for two years as director general of TECO’s Atlanta office and completed his tour of duty here, made his remarks at an April 21 program held at the Georgia Institute of Technology on relations between Taiwan and the mainland. He returned to Taiwan last week and was still awaiting notification of his new position. His replacement, Maggie Tien, recently completed two years as director general of the TECO office in Sydney.

          He called admission of both China and Taiwan to the WTO as “perhaps the most promising avenue to an eventual peaceful resolution to the Taiwan Strait situation.”

At the same time, he severely criticized exclusion of both parties from the WTO, the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international organizations.

“Psychologically, denial by international organizations creates a sense of frustration and indignation among the people in Taiwan, which could potentially undermine cross-strait relations,” he said.

           Although the Hainan Island incident involving a U.S. surveillance plan had not been resolved at the time of his remarks, he made no direct reference to the crisis and underlined the conciliatory comments of Chen Shui-ban, Taiwan’s president, calling for the integration of “our economies, trade and culture.”

          In addition, he mentioned Taiwan’s “pro-active” policy of encouraging economic and social exchanges across the Taiwan Strait including postal, trade and travel links established between the Taiwanese controlled islands of Kimen and Matsu and the mainland. He also referred to the permission granted for mainland journalists to visit Taiwan.

          For more information about his remarks, call Alice Wang at TECO’s information division at (404) 522-0481 or send a fax to teco-atlanta@roc-taiwan.org Visit www.globalatlanta.com for the full text.