Taiwan’s foreign ministry says that holding trade talks with the US is a matter of timing. Foreign ministry and economic ministry officials gave that assessment on Monday during a report at the legislature about the current state of Taiwan-US trade.
A recent New York Times report said US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer was easing up on China. Legislators asked if that development posed a threat to Taiwan’s prospects of signing a bilateral trade agreement with the US.
Deputy Economics Minister Chen Chern-chyi said that Taiwan will try to reach a deal with the US under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA). That’s the main mechanism that Taiwan and the US use to discuss trade.
Deputy Foreign Minister Harry Tseng said that TIFA talks have been stalled since 2016, because of restrictions on importing US pork containing traces of ractopamine. Now that Taiwan has lifted restrictions on those imports, the odds of signing a bilateral trade agreement with the United States have greatly increased.
Tseng says Lighthizer’s softening stance against China does not come at the cost of a trade deal with Taiwan. He says that an agreement is now just a matter of timing.