Taiwan appeals to the United States not to forget their desire for a free trade agreement By Reuters

By Jeanny Kao and Ben Blanchard

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s top retailer on Tuesday appealed to the United States not to forget that the island wants a free trade agreement, but understands that this will not happen immediately, and is willing to make other agreements as “building blocks” first.

Taiwan has long fought for such an agreement, in what would be a strong demonstration of support for the Chinese-claimed island in the face of relentless diplomatic and military pressure from Beijing. It says it is a trusted partner for the United States with common democratic values.

Taiwan and the United States last week announced a new US-Taiwan trade initiative in the 21st century, which calls for new trade negotiations.

Taiwan’s top trade negotiator, John Deng, who is going to Washington at the end of the month to speak with senior US officials, told Reuters in an interview that what they ultimately wanted was a free trade agreement, even though the US government has added all that negotiations about ice cream.

“This is our hope, we need to speak clearly about this goal, and let me know more that this is Taiwan’s goal that we hope for,” he said in his office near the presidential office in central Taipei.

But Taiwan is “very realistic” and knows this is not something that can be achieved in the short term, Deng added.

“Please do not forget that this is what Taiwan wants. But of course we understand that you can not move now.”

“Building blocks” can be established first, and then tariffs can be taken up eventually, he said.

While Taiwan has strong bipartisan support in Congress and the Senate, the Biden administration last month excluded Taipei from its Asia-focused economic plan designed to counter China’s growing influence, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework or IPEF.

Deng said IPEF would be “more complete” if Taiwan were allowed to enter.

Biden angered China last month when he said the United States would become militarily involved if China were to attack the island, and it appears to be breaking with a long-standing policy of not making it clear how the United States could respond. The United States denied any policy change.

CPTPP APPLICATION

The second group Taiwan wants to join, and applied to do so in September, is the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP). China has also applied, saying it is against Taiwan’s accession.

Deng said Taiwan would have to wait for Britain’s more advanced application to be approved first before member states – Canada, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam – would consider Taiwan.

“Their response for now is that Britain is taking up too much labor,” he said, adding that a working group to consider Taiwan’s application has not been set up.

But Deng said he did not believe the CPTPP should follow the World Trade Organization model, with both Taiwan and China joining at the same time, to avoid difficult political issues to favor both parties.

“No country has proposed this, not formally,” Deng said. “It should be based on profit.”