Officials from the US and Taiwan plan to hold trade talks in Taipei this month, highlighting the expansion of ties between the two sides in the face of increasingly fraught relations with China.
The US would send a delegation led by US Assistant Trade Representative Terry McCartin and officials from other government agencies for four days of meetings scheduled to start on Saturday next week, a statement on Wednesday from the American Institute in Taiwan said.
Office of Trade Negotiations Deputy Trade Representative Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮) is to lead the Taiwanese side in the talks with input from government agencies, the Cabinet said in a statement.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters
Washington and Taipei have been forging closer ties as Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) ramps up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on the nation.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) rejects the “one country, two systems” governance model Beijing proposes, and instead says that Taiwan is a de facto independent nation deserving greater global recognition.
Last year, China increased its incursions of warplanes into areas around the nation, dispatching about 1,700 flights, almost double the number in 2021.
It also held unprecedented military drills in August in response to a visit by then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first sitting US House speaker to visit Taipei in 25 years.
Last month, Taiwan announced plans to extend its compulsory military service to one year from four months, signaling to Beijing it is serious about defending itself.
Next week’s trade talks are part of the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade that was launched in June last year to reach an agreement in areas including trade facilitation and regulatory practices.
Officials held “conceptual discussions” in New York in November.
The initiative was announced weeks after US President Joe Biden launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework in May, a deal designed to counter China’s influence in the region that did not feature Taiwan, despite more than 50 senators urging its inclusion.
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