薄瑞光谈蔡英文过境美国

choi

VOA Chinese, June 23, 2016.
http://www.voachinese.com/content/article/3389103.html

Note: 美国在台协会主席薄瑞光:
(a) "这次过境对我们来说很有用，这让我们可以跟台湾总统对话，也可以跟国家安全顾问和外交部长这样的人同车而行。我们有很多问题要谈"

As far as I know, Taiwan presidents, in transit in US have met members of Congress, but not officials (except customs officials) from US executive branch. Therefore 我们 means AIT.

(b) "台湾是世界经济的重要参与者，它是我们第九大贸易伙伴，这对于一个只有2千3百万人口的岛来说很不一般。我们跟台湾之间的贸易往来比跟意大利、巴西、印度等等都要多，而这些都是很大的国家。"
(i)
(A) Top Trading Partners. US Census Bureau, undated.
https://www.census.gov/foreign-t ... ghts/top/index.html
* Click only "Year-to-Date" (in lieu of "Month") for April 2016, December 2015 and December 2014.
* To US, Taiwan was No 9 in 2015 for "total trade" which is divided into import and export. And the "total trade" here refers to merchandise trade, excluding service. Taiwan was No 10 in 2014 (No 9 that year was Brazil, which for many yeas had been ahead of Taiwan but whose trade with US precipitated in 2015 due to turmoil in Brazil). China surpassed Canada in 2015 for the first time (For years before that China had been neck and neck with Mexico, vying for No 2).
* So far this year (up to April, the latest for which data is available) Taiwan is No 10, overcome by India (No 9), which was No 10 last year (2015).
(B) "Year to date (YTD) refers to the period beginning the first day of the current calendar or fiscal year up to the current date."
Investopedia, undated.
www.investopedia.com/terms/y/ytd.asp
(ii) Per capita, Singapore and Hong Kong are higher in trade with US. But these two are transshipment centers, for China and Southeast Asia respectively.