Taiwan and the US yesterday announced that they would commence negotiations on a new trade agreement, dubbed the “Taiwan-US Initiative on 21st-century Trade,” signaling a breakthrough after Taiwan was excluded from a US-led regional trade framework.
The first round of negotiations would be held in Washington at the end of this month, Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中) told a news conference in Taipei, adding that he would head the Taiwanese delegation to the US.
Deng made the announcement after an online meeting with Deputy US Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi, in which the two sides agreed on the initiative’s name.
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
The negotiations would cover 11 areas, but would not include tariffs, Deng said.
The 11 areas include trade facilitation, agricultural trade, fighting corruption, common standards on digital trade, workers’ rights, environmental regulations and state-owned companies, Deng said.
The bilateral initiative largely parallels US President Joe Biden’s Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), an economic partnership with 13 Asian countries that he launched last week during a visit to Seoul and Tokyo. Taiwan was not included, although more than 200 members of the US Congress had called for its inclusion.
Deng said that although some of the initiative’s areas would overlap with those in the IPEF, Taiwan would continue working toward joining the regional agreement.
“For many years we have been hoping to launch trade talks with the US, and now the trade talks can officially begin,” Deng said. “This initiative provides us with a mechanism for talks, and Taiwan and the US aim to reach agreements on some topics and sign some agreements in the shortest possible time.”
Meanwhile, the two sides would continue the current Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) talks, Deng said, adding that negotiations under the new initiative are intended to lead to the inking of new trade agreements, while TIFA talks focus on solving trade-related disputes.
The talks with Taiwan, led for Washington by the US Trade Representative’s office, would supplement several existing dialogues with Taipei, including one led by the US Department of Commerce on export controls and other supply chain issues, a US official said.
Like the IPEF, the initiative with Taiwan would not need US congressional approval because it would not include market access requirements or reduced tariffs, the official added.
The so-called US “fast track” negotiating authority for major trade agreements expired in July last year, and the Biden administration has not asked the US Congress to renew it.
“We think there’s a lot of robust areas that we can cover, that would really deepen our economic engagement, our economic ties, without dealing with market access issues, but, of course, obviously, we’re not ruling anything out for the future,” the official said.
A second official said the new initiative added to other efforts to “highlight the US commitment to the region, specifically economically.”
The US had lacked an economic pillar to its Indo-Pacific engagement since former US president Donald Trump quit a multinational trans-Pacific trade agreement, in part out of concern over US jobs.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS