For immediate release                                                                                                 May 23, 2002

In a 5/22 letter to US International Trade Commission Chair Steve Koplon, Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) said an US-Taiwan Free Trade Agreement "merits careful evaluation and deserves strong support."

Wexler noted that the an ITC fact-finding investigation on such an FTA would "help Congress and the Bush administration understand the ways in which both economies are evolving, so we can use the free trade agreement to find new opportunities for US producers, workers and farmers."

Noting that an FTA would be "to the mutual advantage of both peoples," Wexler also said he was convinced "that a proposed free trade agreement will help U.S. entrepreneurs take advantage of many new opportunities both in Taiwan and throughout Asia."

"The strong ties between democratic Taiwan with its free market economy and the United States will be immensely strengthened by a US-Taiwan Free Trade Agreement," stated FAPA President Wu Ming-chi. "China seems intent on creating a free trade area with the ASEAN nations that would exclude Japan, Taiwan and the United States. It is in the national interests of both the U.S. and Taiwan to move quickly to a US-Taiwan FTA."