Washington will deal with Taiwanese lawmakers’ attempts to block imports of US ground beef and offal sensitively, rather than by refusing requests for arms sales or for the president to make transit stops in the US, Taiwan’s representative to Washington Jason Yuan (袁健生) said on Friday.

On the sidelines of a Republic of China flag-raising ceremony, Yuan said the beef issue would be handled by the US Department of Agriculture, while the other two issues fall within the remit of the US Department of Defense, the US Department of State and the White House.