Taiwan’s top trade negotiator yesterday appealed to the US not to forget that the nation wants a free-trade deal, but understands this will not happen immediately and is willing to make other agreements first as “building blocks.”
Taiwan has long campaigned for such a deal, in what would be a strong show of support for the nation in the face of unrelenting diplomatic and military pressure from Beijing. It says it is a reliable partner for the US with shared democratic values.
Taiwan and the US last week announced a new US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade, which envisages new trade talks.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Taiwan’s top trade negotiator, Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中), who is scheduled to visit Washington at the end of this month for talks with senior US officials, told reporters in an interview that ultimately what the nation wants is a free-trade agreement, even if the US government has put all such negotiations on ice.
“This is our hope, we must speak about this goal clearly, and let more people know this is Taiwan’s aim that we are hoping for,” Deng said in his office in Taipei.
However, Taiwan is “very realistic” and knows this is not something that can be achieved in the short term, he said.
“Please don’t forget this is what Taiwan wants, but of course, we understand you can’t move now,” he said.
“Building blocks” can be established first, and then tariffs can be addressed at the end, Deng said.
While Taiwan has strong bipartisan support in the US Congress, US President Joe Biden’s administration last month excluded Taipei from its economic plan designed to counter China’s growing influence, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).
Deng said that the IPEF would be “more complete” with Taiwan.
Biden angered China last month when he said that the US would get involved militarily if China were to attack the nation.
The other grouping Taiwan wants to join, and applied to do so in September last year, is the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). China has also applied and says it opposes Taiwan joining.
Deng said that Taiwan would have to wait for Britain’s more advanced application to be approved first before member states would consider Taiwan.
“Their answer for now is that Britain is taking up too much manpower,” he said, adding a working group to consider Taiwan’s application has not been set up.
However, Deng said he did not think the CPTPP should have to follow the WTO model, whereby Taiwan and China joined at the same time, to avoid any thorny political issues of favoring either party.
“No country has proposed this, not formally,” Deng said. “It should be based on merit.”
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