After a five-year hiatus, the 11th Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) trade talks between Taiwan and the US yesterday began with a virtual meeting, with the two sides agreeing to hold more “working groups” and to discuss a number of topics throughout the year to consolidate bilateral trade relations, government officials said.
“It’s a new page for US-Taiwan relations,” Executive Yuan spokesman Lo Ping-cheng (羅秉成) told an online news conference in Taipei.
The two sides discussed a range of issues, including technology supply chains, trade facilitation and digital trade, as well as the environment, intellectual property and labor rights, he added.
Photo courtesy of Executive Yuan
Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中), who heads the Office of Trade Negotiations under the Executive Yuan, said that he was “thankful” for the eight-hour meeting, which ended at 3am Washington time.
TIFA participants included the representatives of various US government departments, including state, agriculture, labor and trade, as well as their Taiwanese counterparts via videoconference, a sign that the US “took relations with Taiwan very seriously,” Deng said.
“It’s been since 2016 when the last TIFA was held,” he said. “But three weeks ago, I met with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪), and we made it happen.”
During the talks, it was agreed that there are to be more “working group meetings happening all year long” in a bid to clarify and consolidate further cooperation, Deng said.
“Just TIFA once a year is not enough,” he said.
Office of Trade Negotiations Deputy Trade Representative Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮), who led the Taiwanese side of the meeting, echoed Deng’s sentiments.
“We talked about strengthening US-Taiwan supply chain cooperation from semiconductors to electric vehicles to vaccines,” Yang said. “The US representatives described the talks as ‘fully successful.’”
Topics in the meeting ranged from reducing agricultural tariffs, simplifying paperwork for the mutual trade of medical supplies, labor standards and digital trade, as well as environmental, social and governance goals, she said.
The lifting of a ban on the importation of US pork with traces of ractopamine in August last year was instrumental in warming US attitudes, and Taiwan was able to talk with the US in the spirit of full cooperation, Deng said.
“This is a very positive change in attitude that gives me hope that one day we reach our goal [of signing a bilateral trade agreement with the US],” he said.
When asked whether Chinese interference might challenge the US’ commitment to deepening economic cooperation with Taiwan, Deng said that US President Joe Biden’s administration sees Taiwan as an ally.
“Many US lawmakers wrote to the US president to urge closer US-Taiwan ties,” he said, “Taiwan has many friends in the US.”
Whether Taiwan is to receive more help from the US in terms of COVID-19 vaccines has been a hot topic.
At the news conference, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) dismissed speculation regarding “chips for vaccines,” but said that Taiwan has asked for US approval to manufacture US vaccines.
“We asked to be more involved in the vaccine supply chain,” Hsueh said. “The US side replied that that would be something that could be discussed in a working group meeting.”
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
RSS