Aug. 18 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Biden Administration has announced that it will begin formal trade negotiations with Taiwan in the fall after recent tensions over the visit of the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to the island.
“We plan to follow an ambitious timetable to achieve high-level commitments and significant results covering all eleven trade areas in the negotiating mandate that will help build a fairer, more prosperous and resilient 21st century economy,” the representative said in a statement. sales associate, Sarah Bianchi.
Said contacts between Taipei and Washington will be carried out under the auspices of the American Institute of Taiwan, the ‘de facto’ Embassy of the United States in the territory, and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO).
“The United States will continue to consult with Congress and key stakeholders such as labor, business, environmental and other groups during the negotiations,” the Office of the Trade Representative said in a statement.
For its part, the Taiwan Economic and Trade Negotiations Office has indicated in a statement that both parties have shown “a high degree of ambition”, so it is expected to “achieve concrete results as soon as possible and sign a trade agreement”.
The initiative, which was already announced last June, seeks to “strengthen investment and trade between Taiwan and the United States”, as well as “increase the confidence of international investment in Taiwan and provide Taiwan with more opportunities to attract capital and technology,” both from the United States and the world.
In this way, it covers eleven key areas, including “trade facilitation, regulatory practices, agriculture, anti-corruption, support for small and medium-sized enterprises, digital trade, labor rights, environment, standards, state-owned companies and practices and policies outside the government”. market”.
China has indicated this Thursday, after the announcement, that it is “firmly opposed” to the initiative, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned the United States not to make any deal that could imply Taiwanese sovereignty.
Thus, he has urged Washington to “carefully manage economic and trade relations with Taiwan and fully respect China’s fundamental interests,” said the spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, Shu Jueting, as reported by the news agency Bloomberg.
The Biden Administration is conducting a separate trade negotiation with thirteen Asian nations to launch an economic plan in the region, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) of which Taiwan is not a part.
Washington sees the IPEF as a key tool to counter China’s influence in Asia, after the United States withdrew from talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership regional trade deal as part of former President Donald Trump’s isolationist policy.
China has already indicated at the time that this action is a deceptive strategy of the United States, which is presented “under the banner of ‘freedom and openness’, when in reality it only wants to create ‘small circles'” in an attempt to contain Beijing.
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