Published on: 08/18/2022 – 14:50 Modified on: 08/18/2022 – 14:53
Amid tensions between China and the United States over Taiwan’s fate, Washington announced on Wednesday, August 17, that formal negotiations with Taipei will begin in the fall to strengthen their trade and economic ties. Reactions in Beijing were quick to condemn this announcement and threatened to act on it. While their trade is important, no binding trade agreement binds Taipei and Washington.
For now, the chosen terms for those negotiations, which the US Trade Representative’s office says won’t begin until the fall, are vague and general. We are not yet talking about the free trade agreement that some in Taipei are calling for.
Taiwan was not incorporated into the new Indo-Pacific Economic Partnership Founded in May by Joe Biden. This is done so as not to bring the thirteen other members into conflict with Beijing.
The talks are part of the 21st Century Trade Initiative between the US and Taiwan, launched by Katherine Kai and Taiwan Minister John Deng during a virtual meeting in June. Already at large Beijing anger.
Responses to “unfriendly policies and practices”
Bilateral trade has grown steadily since 1994 and the signing of the Trade and Investment Framework with the island. In 2020, they peaked at $106 billion, making Taiwan the United States’ ninth-largest trading partner, thanks in large part to exports from the island’s tech industries.
In the negotiating mandate released on Wednesday, Washington suggests further strengthening exchanges and jointly considering responses to “anti-market policies and practices” that analysts have taken as pointing to China’s practices.
Beijing “resolutely rejects”
Beijing appears to be very critical of this “new initiative,” which it sees as a sign of Washington’s increased commitment to the Taiwanese government following Nancy Pelosi’s political endorsement and visit earlier this month, reports our correspondent in Beijing, Stephane Lagarde.
Following The new crisisTriggered by the trip to Taipei by the President of the US House of Representatives, the showdown between the two leading world powers continues.
“China strongly opposes trade talks between the United States and Taiwan,” Shu Jueting previously hammered out. China’s Commerce Ministry spokesman says everything is being done to “uphold China’s sovereignty and protect China’s interests.”
The New China Agency again this weekend accused the White House of “playing with fire”. the arrival of American MPs on Sunday August 14 on the island.
For its part, the US government has announced “an ambitious program to complete high-level trade commitments” for next fall.
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