TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan, eager to mend trade ties with the United States a day after overturning part of a deal to import U.S. beef products, said on Wednesday it would seek to reopen talks with its biggest ally.
Taiwan is ready to restart talks immediately and will ask the U.S. government when it could renegotiate beef-related issues, the Government Information Office said, citing a statement by Premier Wu Den-yih.
The island's parliament changed a food safety law on Tuesday to ban some U.S. beef imports, sparking an angry response from the United States, which said the move undermined Taiwan's credibility as a trading partner.
On October 22, Taiwan said that after a six-year ban it would reopen markets to U.S. bone-in beef such as T-bone steaks as well as ground beef and offal, which includes parts such as cow brain.
Under the bill passed in parliament on Tuesday over mad cow disease fears, imports of ground beef and cow offal will now not be allowed. The beef issue has handed Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou one of his biggest crises since he took office in 2008.
The U.S. government has said it "deeply regrets" parliament's decision and that the move could hurt development of trade ties.
Washington wants Taipei to live by the October 22 agreement, the de facto embassy in Taiwan said. It had no comment on Taiwan's request for immediate renegotiations.
(Reporting by Ralph Jennings)
