TAIWAN PLANS MISSION TO CLOSE TRADE GAP WITH U.S.

  Taiwan's leading industrial organisation
  said it will send its first buying mission to the U.S. Later
  this year in an effort to reduce the country's trade surplus
  with Washington.
      A spokesman for the Chinese National Federation of
  Industries told Reuters the mission was part of a broader plan
  to switch large purchases to the U.S. From Japan.
      The Federation groups all of Taiwan's major industrial
  associations. Last year its members purchased about 4.5 billion
  U.S. Dlrs worth of industrial products from Japan and about 1.8
  billion from the U.S.
      The spokesman said Federation members were now discussing
  the volume of business they could transfer to America.
      He said they had drawn up a list of about 80 industrial
  products they would be shopping for in the U.S. During the
  buying mission in September, but he could give no figure on how
  much would be spent.
      A Board of Foreign Trade official told Reuters the
  government would send two buying missions to America between
  June and July this year and might send others later.
      Taiwan's trade surplus with the U.S. Rose to a record 13.6
  billion dlrs last year from 10.2 billion in 1985.
  

