Lawmakers in the US Senate and House of Representatives on Wednesday introduced companion resolutions calling on US president-elect Joe Biden to enter a free-trade agreement with Taiwan — a move welcomed by Taipei.
US Senator Pat Toomey, a Republican, introduced the resolution in the Senate, while 25 other Republican senators cosponsored it.
“Building closer trade ties between the United States and Taiwan is a win-win for both countries,” Toomey said in a news release.
With an agreement, both economies would grow faster, and the US would strengthen its relationship with a key regional ally and increase its economic engagement in the Indo-Pacific region, he said, urging the incoming Biden administration to prioritize such a deal.
A similar resolution was introduced in the House by US Representative Guy Reschenthaler, also a Republican. The House resolution had six sponsors, including Congressional Taiwan Caucus Chairs Steve Chabot and Mario Diaz-Balart.
“This legislation is a critical step toward building a stronger diplomatic partnership with Taiwan, expanding economic growth and job creation through increased access to markets in the Indo-Pacific region, and countering the Chinese Communist Party’s hostilities toward Taiwan,” Reschenthaler said in a separate news release.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) yesterday thanked the US lawmakers for their robust support for expanding bilateral trade ties.
In December last year, 161 US representatives across parties wrote to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, urging him to start negotiations on a bilateral trade agreement, she said.
The US’ Taiwan Allies International Protection and Enhancement Initiative Act, enacted in March, also supports improved trade ties between Taipei and Washington, she added.
Taiwan would continue to seek support for a bilateral trade pact from various sectors in the US, while deepening bilateral trade relations through different platforms, Ou said.
Despite warming relations between Taipei and Washington, a bilateral meeting under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement, mainly overseen by the Office of the US Trade Representative, has not been held since October 2016.
“I’m not going to enter any new trade agreement with anybody until we have made major investments here at home and in our workers,” Biden told the New York Times on Dec. 2.
He later named Katherine Tai (戴琪) — who was born in Connecticut to Chinese-born parents who lived in Taiwan and were naturalized in the US in 1979 — to be his trade representative.
Tai’s judgements on trade issues would likely follow the traditional stance of the US Democratic Party, the ministry has said.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
TRUMP ERA: The change has sparked speculation on whether it was related to the new US president’s plan to dismiss more than 1,000 Joe Biden-era appointees The US government has declined to comment on a post that indicated the departure of Laura Rosenberger as chair of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT). Neither the US Department of State nor the AIT has responded to the Central News Agency’s questions on the matter, after Rosenberger was listed as a former chair on the AIT’s official Web site, with her tenure marked as 2023 to this year. US officials have said previously that they usually do not comment on personnel changes within the government. Rosenberger was appointed head of the AIT in 2023, during the administration of former US president Joe
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV