Taiwan hopes to reach a consensus with the US on an “early harvest list” for a bilateral trade deal before the end of this year, Office of Trade Negotiations Deputy Trade Representative Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮) told lawmakers yesterday.
Taipei and Washington want to create the list once they have reached a consensus on some of the 11 trade areas that are “already being widely discussed and agreed on in international trade talks” for the planned US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade deal, Yang said.
She did not elaborate on the so-called “early harvest list.”
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
The initiative was unveiled by US President Joe Biden after Taiwan was excluded from the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a US-led multilateral partnership involving 12 other countries, which has been touted as a counterweight to Chinese free-trade deals in the region.
Early harvest lists are used to open up trade on a restricted list of goods and services between two countries, primarily as a forerunner to a more comprehensive free-trade agreement.
Yang made the remarks when asked by lawmakers at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee to share progress that had been made in the trade initiative announced by Taipei and Washington in June.
The 11 areas to be addressed in the negotiations include trade facilitation, sound regulatory practices, eliminating corruption, small and medium-sized enterprises, agriculture, standards, digital trade, labor, environmental protection, state-owned enterprises, and nonmarket policies and practices.
Both governments on Aug. 17 announced that the first round of negotiations for the initiative would take place this fall, but no updates have been made on the deal so far.
Taiwan and the US are still discussing the exact time and location for the first round of meetings, Yang said.
Both sides hope that a final agreement on all 11 areas can be reached before the end of next year with an “early harvest list” on some of the areas to be proposed before the end of this year, once official negotiations start, she added.
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