The US House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means on Tuesday unanimously approved a bill affirming its support for an initial agreement reached under the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade.
The bill was announced last week by US Representative and committee Chairman Jason Smith, US Representative Richard Neal, US Senate Committee on Finance Chairman Ron Wyden and US Senator Mike Crapo.
It cleared the committee in a 42-0 vote and now heads for a full House vote.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Taiwan and the US signed an agreement under the initiative on June 1, which covers customs and border procedures, regulatory practices and small businesses, to make trade and investment between the two sides easier.
Following the signing, the two sides said they plan to begin negotiations on more complicated issues, such as agriculture, digital trade, labor, and environment and nonmarket policies and practices, as well as state-owned enterprises and standards.
The committee said the bill confirms the US Congress’ support for the initial agreement, and seeks to require congressional consultation and approval for any subsequent agreements.
The bill’s latter section refers to an ongoing dispute between the White House and US lawmakers from both parties over the administration of US President Joe Biden’s pursuit of limited trade pacts that bypass Congress, another example being a deal on electric vehicle battery materials struck with Japan in March.
Smith told the committee that he supports the US administration’s efforts to pursue closer trade relations with Taiwan and believes the substance of the first agreement under the initiative was “sound.”
“The people of the United States and the people of Taiwan share an invaluable economic partnership; we share democratic values and we have strong individual ties between our two nations,” Smith said.
Neal said it was vital for Congress and US trade policy to support democratic Taiwan amid the “incredible pressure” it faces from its authoritarian neighbor, China.
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
RSS