Minister

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed
by the South African government to regulate the status of reciprocal
representative offices.

The new agreement was issued last month and comes as South Africa is seeking
to downgrade and rename of Taiwan's two representative offices there.

According to the foreign ministry it is currently in consultations with legal
experts on the proposed new agreement, and although the new proposal offers
Taiwan greater flexibility, it remains unacceptable.

Foreign ministry officials have not explained what aspects of the proposal
are unacceptable.

However, the ministry says it is keeping its options open on whether to
resume plans for retaliatory measures against South Africa, including
controls on chip exports, pending bilateral talks on the proposed agreement.

Foreign ministry officials say Taiwan's representative office in Pretoria is
continuing to provide services to Taiwanese in South Africa and maintains
normal operations ..

.. while the South Africa representative office in Taipei also continues to
operate normally despite the dispute.