Taiwan’s intent to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been welcomed by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR).
“We welcome Taiwan’s interest to join the TPP,” a USTR spokeswoman said in an e-mail on Wednesday to the Taipei Times, in response to enquiries regarding Washington’s position on the issue.
The spokeswoman for the USTR, which is currently negotiating with 11 other countries to form the TPP, declined to give her name.
The comment represents the most positive public statement the US has made about Taiwan’s membership.
Previous answers followed the line that all APEC members are eligible for TPP membership if they are able to meet the high standards that are being negotiated in the free-trade agreement.
The deadline set by the US to reach the deal creating the trade bloc was postponed to next month after the 12 nations failed to resolve outstanding issues in the latest round of talks in Singapore earlier this month.
Ahead of the looming deadline, the US is “focused on concluding the agreement among the current 12 TPP partners,” the spokeswoman said.
“However, we are also developing the TPP as a potential platform to expand to include other regional economies,” the spokeswoman added.
If an economy is interested in joining the bloc, it must demonstrate readiness to adopt the group’s high standards and commit to its comprehensive nature, while any decision to accept new partners requires the consensus of all existing partners, the spokeswoman said.
Bilateral negotiations with the US have been back on track since March this year after Taiwan eased a ban on US beef imports containing the leanness-enhancing additive ractopamine, ending a six-year hiatus in talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) platform.
During the March negotiations, the US and Taiwan set up two working groups to deal with investment-related issues and technical barriers to trade.
The US continues to encourage Taiwan to fully utilize the TIFA process through the two working groups to “build confidence in its trade relationship with the United States and move its economy in the direction of becoming eligible for entry into the TPP,” the spokeswoman said.
In a telephone interview on Friday, Bureau of Foreign Trade Director Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) said one reason the US has not made explicit its position on the issue is that it is “not comfortable” with Taiwan’s trade regime.
Chang said it was a “salient fact” that the US believes Taiwan’s removal of the ban on beef containing a permissible level of ractopamine residue is inconsistent with the remaining ban on pork with ractopamine.
He added that he believed the US therefore does not consider that Taiwan’s trade regime meets international standards.
“We do see how our [Taiwan’s] intransigence on the pork issue bears on US’ support for our bid for TPP inclusion,” he said.
The Bureau has been tasked with handling the logistics of the International Economic and Trade Strategic Task Force headed by Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺), which is to have oversight of the nation’s participation in the TPP, as well as the China-led establishment of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
The government is now reviewing domestic rules and regulations that conflict with what might be agreed in the TPP agreement, Chang said.
He added that the government can only look to the US-South Korea Free-Trade Agreement and the EU-South Korea Free-Trade Agreement as blueprints because of the difficulty of obtaining TPP information.
“Since the participating countries are obliged to maintain confidentiality concerning the content of negotiations, we don’t know exactly what will be in the TPP,” Chang said.
The government is yet to set a timeframe for completing the assessment report on possible regulatory conflicts, Chang said.
Assessment of the TPP’s economic effects on the country can only begin after the full text of the agreement is disclosed by the 12 TPP partners, he added.
Taiwan has contacted each of the 12 TPP partners to express interest in joining either through bilateral channels or at multilateral occasions like APEC-related meetings, said John Lai (賴建中), director-general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of Economic and Trade Affairs.
The approach has received a positive response, with all the countries encouraging Taiwan to show its determination to liberalize its economy, said an official, who asked for anonymity.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
RSS