Pundits have urged Taiwan to be more active in handling US trade relations, after US President Donald Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) were conducted peacefully.
Trump met with Xi on Thursday and Friday last week at his Mar-a-Lago retreat in Florida in their first face-to-face talks.
After the meeting, US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said that Trump and Xi have agreed on a new 100-day plan for trade talks that would boost US exports and reduce the US’ trade deficit with China.
The meeting’s success has eased concerns over a potential trade war between China and the US, said Roy Chun Lee (李淳), deputy director of the Taiwan WTO Center under the Chung Hua Institution for Economic Research.
He said that negotiations during the 100-day plan are likely to focus on China’s procurement of US agricultural products and the Chinese market’s further opening to the US service industry.
Easing tensions in trade between the US and China would also benefit Taiwanese businesses based in China, Lee said.
However, he said that the US would continue its efforts to curb Chinese exports, and so Taiwan needs to take response measures as soon as possible, he added.
The meeting did not address major disputes between the two nations, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research’s Economic Forecasting Center director Gordon Sun (孫明德) said.
Nevertheless, the meeting has helped relieve concerns over the development of trade between the US and China, Sun said.
The Trump administration is to continue its efforts to address its massive trade deficit with many Asian nations, he said, urging Taiwan to develop a strategy to respond to possible moves by Washington.
Sun said Taiwan should pay attention to company representatives who accompanied Xi in the US, as the sectors in which those companies operate might provide opportunities for investment.
In addition to promoting its “new southbound policy,” Taiwan should also bolster its ties with US industries in a bid to create new jobs there, Sun said.
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