Taiwan's legislature has passed a bill to lift a ban on U.S. beef that contains small amounts of a growth additive.

The bill was passed Wednesday. It will allow Taiwanese to import U.S. beef containing minimal traces of ractopamine, a feed additive for creating lean meat.

Lifting the ban will remove a major irritant in Taiwan-U.S relations. Despite shifting its recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, the U.S. remains Taiwan's most important foreign partner. It has been pushing for a removal of the ractopamine ban as a precondition for progress on trade talks.

Taiwan hopes to negotiate a set of trade regulations that could herald the signing of a free trade agreement with Washington. But such a measure might anger China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory.