The new Taiwan-US Initiative on 21st Century Trade has significant strategic implications, as it shows that Taiwan is a priority trading partner of the US and vice versa, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday.
The initiative, announced on Wednesday, is to provide a mechanism for economic and trade talks between the two nations in 11 areas, excluding tariffs.
It largely parallels the US’ Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), which excluded Taiwan when it launched last week.
Photo: screen grab from Office of the US Trade Representative Twitter account
The first round of negotiations is to be held later this month in Washington, Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中) told reporters on Wednesday following a virtual meeting with Deputy US Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi.
The initiative is “an important advancement in the economic relationship between Taiwan and the US,” Su told a Cabinet meeting yesterday.
It represents a new model of Taiwan-US engagement that not only provides a road map for signing a bilateral trade pact, but would also help the two nations develop a more comprehensive, substantive, cutting-edge and sustainable economic partnership, he added.
It would also be of great benefit to Taiwan’s efforts to join regional trade mechanisms such as the IPEF and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), as well as reaffirm the strategic significance of Taiwan and the US as each other’s priority trading partners, Su said.
Taiwan is an indispensable link in global supply chains, he said, adding that Washington realizes the need to bolster its economic ties with Taiwan to make global trade more resilient and secure.
Taiwan is also at the forefront of democracies’ fight against authoritarianism, with the Russia-Ukraine war making its strategic position even clearer, he added.
American Institute in Taiwan Director Sandra Oudkirk yesterday said that the institute is ready to support the advancement of the exciting initiative, which aims to develop concrete ways to deepen the US-Taiwan economic relationship.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday evening, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) wrote she was hopeful that the new bilateral trade initiative between Taiwan and the US would eventually lead to a trade agreement.
Separately yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip William Tseng (曾銘宗) said the party was happy to see a breakthrough in Taiwan-US trade, but added that it is still only the beginning.
The framework still excludes the potential of a free-trade agreement, and does not guarantee that Taiwan would gain access to the CPTPP, he said.
KMT Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) wrote on Facebook that after Trade and Investment Framework Agreement talks with the US resumed last year, Taiwan had many times expressed its desire for a free-trade agreement and to join the IPEF, but neither has come to pass.
Negotiations on the new initiative have not even started and the content is still unknown, he said.
“The question is, what significant progress is being made? What are these significant results?” he wrote, accusing the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of using the agreement to score political points.
DPP spokeswoman Lee Yen-hui (李妍慧) hit back at the KMT, accusing it of discrediting the initiative because it does not want to see Taiwan-US ties improve.
Additional reporting by Lu Yi-hsuan, Jason Pan and CNA
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