Exchanging business cards at the start of the meeting
May 11, 2023
ARLINGTON, VA – Yesterday, representatives of the U.S. and Taiwan rice industries, the Agriculture and Food Agency (AFA) of Taiwan, and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US (TECRO) resumed in-person meetings for the group’s annual technical discussions.
“This is the eighth year we’ve had these technical meetings and as Ms. Grace Lin, the Director of TECRO’s Agricultural Division noted, they keep getting better each year,” said California rice farmer Michael Rue who chairs of the U.S. delegation. “We appreciate the Taiwan rice industry’s willingness to travel here to meet us, our discussions were productive and we had one of our most well-attended meetings since formalizing this regular discussion process.”
Topics for the meeting included an exchange of information on this year’s rice production and utilization in both countries; a review of Taiwan’s purchasing of U.S. rice including their World Trade Organization (WTO) tariff rate quota fulfillment requirements; discussion of Taiwan’s maximum residue limits for crop protectants used on U.S. rice; and updates on the U.S. freight situation.
Taiwan began importing rice from the United States when they established a U.S. country-specific quota in 2007 after joining the WTO in 2002. Taiwan currently has a country-specific import quota for U.S. rice of 64,634 MT, within an overall annual import quota from all WTO members of 144,720 MT. Taiwan purchases primarily medium grain but also purchases long grain, short grain, and fragrant rice from the U.S.
The U.S. exported 63,000 MT of rice to Taiwan in 2022, valued at approximately $43 million.