The US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact — which Taiwan is hoping to join — is under threat, as it faces increasing opposition in the US Congress.
About 60 Republicans in the US House of Representatives this week announced they might join their Democratic counterparts in opposing a bill that would give US President Barack Obama “fast track” authority to seal the deal with 11 other Pacific countries.
Fast track would let Congress approve or reject the trade deal without amendments.
Most Democrats are against the bill and with even limited Republican help may be able to stop it.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the force suddenly driving Republicans against the bill is a “deep distrust of Obama as an international negotiator.”
The newspaper said that Republican suspicion took center stage this month in public challenges to Obama’s nuclear negotiations with Iran.
“The president’s foreign policy, in my view, has been one continuous misstep after another, so why should we trust him to do a fast-track policy on something that’s so important with so many nations?” Republican Representative Steve Russell said.
This comes as negotiations to launch the TPP are entering their final stages.
Heavy lobbying is now under way by the Republican leadership to bring all party members back into line and support the TPP, while the White House is busy fighting for at least some Democratic votes for the trade pact.
Taiwan hopes to join the pact in a second round of talks to expand the deal later this year.
“The negotiation’s failure would have devastating consequences for US leadership, for the deepening of key partnerships in strategic regions, for the promotion of market reforms in emerging economies and for the future of the trade agenda,” said Mireya Solis, senior fellow in East Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution.
The window of opportunity to cinch a TPP deal is closing fast, Solis said.
She said that passage of the fast track authority — also known as the trade promotion authority (TPA) — is “essential” as a political device to give complex trade agreements a chance at successful negotiation and ratification.
“First and foremost, we need to pass TPA in the Congress,” Solis said.
“Every week that goes by without movement on TPA reduces the prospect that trade policy could be the one area immune to the dysfunctional political climate in Washington,” she said.
“Quite simply, without TPA, there is no TPP,” Solis said.
Representative to the US Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡) recently said that TPP membership was “a must” for the next stage of Taiwan’s national development.
The 12 countries currently involved in negotiations account for about 40 percent of global economic output and more than one-third of world trade.
Shen says that joining the pact is “vital” for Taiwan to keep up with increasingly tough competition, particularly from South Korea.
TPP would give the US leverage in the decade ahead as it begins negotiations with second-round entrants, said Patrick Cronin, senior director of the Asia-Pacific security program at the Center for a New American Security.
“This could be a major tool for engaging China, given that our clear objective is to integrate a rising China not to contain it,” he said.
“It also gives us a potential tool for managing Taiwan, whose growing dependence on the mainland is leaving it little international space for avoiding coercion,” Cronin said.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
RSS