Taiwan and the United States announced on Thursday the start of trade talks in early fall, as a senior US diplomat warned that Beijing would continue to pressure the democratic island it claims.
These discussions are part of an initiative announced in June and which has already given rise to a first meeting the same month.
The talks will cover a wide variety of topics, including agriculture, e-commerce and lifting trade barriers, the office of US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement.
A trade deal will “strengthen trade and investment”, and “promote innovation and inclusive economic growth for our workers and businesses”, said Sarah Bianchi, Assistant to the US Trade Representative.
“We welcome this opportunity to deepen economic collaboration between our two freedom-loving countries while shaping a new pattern of business cooperation in the Indo-Pacific,” Taiwan’s foreign ministry tweeted.
Taiwan and the United States are already important trading partners. The island is also an indispensable global supplier of semiconductors, needed in particular in mobile phones, computers, cars and missiles.
But Taipei’s biggest trading partner remains Beijing, which reacted by “strongly opposing” the negotiations.
“China has always opposed any official exchange between any country and the Chinese region of Taiwan,” Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Shu Jueting told reporters on Thursday, adding that the issue pertains to China-China relations. -American.
“Coercion”
Last year, 42% of Taiwan’s exports went to China and Hong Kong, compared to 15% to the United States.
Beijing considers Taiwan its territory and has vowed to take it back, by force if necessary.
For its part, Washington recognizes the Beijing regime and not that of Taipei, but maintains de facto relations with Taiwan.
Taipei and Washington have already been bound since 1994 by a “framework” relating to trade and investment, which is not a formal agreement.
Washington refuses to change its position on Taiwan and accuses Beijing of threatening peace by exploiting the visit to the island in early August by the speaker of the American House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
The Chinese authorities considered the visit of the Democratic leader to the House of Representatives as a provocation and responded with trade sanctions imposed on Taiwan as well as military maneuvers near the island.
A senior American diplomat said Thursday that he expects Beijing to strengthen its military, economic and diplomatic “coercion” on Taiwan in the “weeks and months” to come.
“If our policy hasn’t changed, what has changed is the increasing coercion from Beijing,” Daniel Kritenbrink, the State Department’s East Asia official, said on a conference call. with journalists.
Chinese military exercises ‘are part of an intense campaign of coercion […] to intimidate and coerce Taiwan and undermine its resilience,” Kritenbrink said.
The American diplomat assured that Washington would respond with “calm, but resolute measures” to keep the Taiwan Strait open.
During its maneuvers, the Chinese army fired several ballistic missiles into the waters of Taiwan. Beijing hadn’t made such a show of force since the mid-1990s.
For its part, Taiwan presented its most advanced fighter plane on Wednesday in a rare nighttime demonstration.
“In the face of the threat of recent military exercises by Chinese communist forces, we have remained vigilant while establishing the concept of ‘battlefields anywhere and training at any time’. […] to ensure national security,” the Taiwan Air Force said in a statement.