60263 US Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena, who visited Taiwan in December, requested the Taiwanese government to let the US take part in the direct traffic when realized.
60264 Though this is the US secretary of transportation's first visit to Taiwan based on the Clinton Administration's new policy toward Taiwan which approves of exchanges of economic ministers, Mr. Pena was very quick to get right down to business.
60265 Though Taiwanese authorities use this issue as political leverage, saying, "Taiwan won't approve the direct traffic until China changes its anti-Taiwan policy," the business world is calling for the direct traffic for cost reduction.
60266 With the Cabinet reshuffle in Taiwan at the end of last year, Xiao Wan Chang, an advocate of the direct service, was appointed as the minister in charge of Taiwan's policy toward China.
60267 Many people have a view that the US made the move judging that the direct service will be realized soon.
60268 Though China, opposing Pena's visit to Taiwan, rejected his visit, which was originally scheduled in January, it is China that wants the direct service the most.
60269 The move of the US, which makes the direct transportation more likely, is also beneficial for China.
60270 We can lose sight of how the political game among three countries, the US, China, and Taiwan, develops if we only look at the conflict on the surface.
60271 The Office of the US Trade Representative gave a notice of sanctions worth totally 2.8 billion dollars against China on the 31st, saying it has not taken effective reform measures to protect intellectual property rights.
60272 The sanctions go in to effect as of February 4th.
60273 Xinhua news agency says People's Bank of China, the central bank of China, will raise the interest rate on loans to financial institutions, which we call the official discount rate, by 0.24% on average, starting 1st.
60274 This means the interest rate on loans for a year will be 10.62%.
60275 The financial services negotiations of the Japan-US Framework for New Economic Partnership in Seattle closed on the 30th with specifics undecided, carrying the end result over to new year's meeting.
60276 It was thought that both sides would rush to conclude the agreement, as Japan gave huge concessions to the US request to open Japan's public pension market to foreign investment advisory companies, the biggest focus of these negotiations.
60277 While the US says, "There was great progress," it wanted to finalize the details of issues like deregulation of the development of new products in the bond market, the corporate market, and deregulation of operation of employees' pension fund, which led to putting off the end result.