US–Taiwan Business Council

The US–Taiwan Business Council (Traditional Chinese: 美台商業協會; Pinyin: Měi Tái Shāngyè Xíehùi) is a membership-based, non-profit organization founded in 1976 to foster trade and business relations between the United States and Taiwan. Council members consist of private companies with business interests in Taiwan, and range in size from one-person consulting firms to large multinational corporations. Because the organization reflects the views and concerns of an extensive group of U.S. businesses, the council is generally considered to be one of the most influential private organizations playing a part in the unofficial relationship between the two economies. The organization is particularly well known in the Defense & Security community, as it is the host of an annual US-Taiwan Defense Industry Conference. The inaugural conference in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2002 brought Taiwan's Minister of National Defense to the U.S. for the first time since 1979.