The US is to “engage virtually every country” in the region in creating the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday, as he dismissed concerns that Washington had shut the door on Taiwan.
At a hearing of the US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs, US Representative Ann Wagner asked Blinken whether Taiwan was being excluded from joining the IPEF, an initiative proposed by US President Joe Biden last year with the aim of enhancing its economic engagement in the Indo-Pacific region.
“I am particularly concerned that Taiwan is being shut out of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, even though the administration may try to kind of hide this by never formally closing the doors, so to speak, to participation; Taiwan’s offer to become a full member is not being accepted,” Wagner said.
Photo: AFP
Wagner said the policy to deny Taiwan’s participation in the IPEF is “self-defeating and dangerous” given that it was the US’ eighth-largest trading partner last year and one of its largest trading partners in Asia.
Blinken said “there is no such policy” to exclude Taiwan.
“There is nothing that is closing the door on anyone, including Taiwan,” he added.
The US has just started the process of launching the IPEF, including beginning conversations with a number of countries as potential partners, Blinken said.
“It’s going to be open, it’s going to be inclusive and I imagine we’re going to be engaging virtually every country in the region,” he added.
Wagner said that Taiwan had made it clear to the US in recent bilateral talks that becoming a full member of the IPEF is its “No. 1 and top request,” and Taipei has changed national laws in anticipation of starting free-trade negotiations.
She urged Blinken to send more reaffirming messages to Taiwan.
“As a rule of law, democracy and a top global trading partner, Taiwan should certainly be a top priority for the framework,” Wagner said. “But instead, this administration is marginalizing Taiwan and showing the Chinese Communist Party that the United States is deterred from working with a critical partner.”
Similar concerns have been raised by other US lawmakers.
A bipartisan group of 200 US representatives on March 30 published a letter addressed to US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) to petition for Taiwan’s inclusion in the IPEF.
Reuters cited unnamed sources in a March 31 story as saying that Raimondo told a closed-door meeting of the US Senate Finance Committee the week before that the administration was not considering Taiwan’s inclusion at this time.
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