Economics Minister John Deng is in the United States to express Taiwan’s interest in joining the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Teng is scheduled to speak about the regional trade pact at the Washington-based think tank, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on Tuesday. It has been 11 years since the last economics minister from Taiwan visited the US capital.
Teng is looking to drum up support from Congress and government agencies in the signing of a Taiwan-US bilateral investment agreement and inclusion in the second round of TPP negotiations.
US officials said Monday that the US is working on resuming talks on the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) with Taiwan. They said that TIFA would offer the two sides a platform for discussing a Bilateral Investment Agreement (BIA).
However, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said it is not up to just the United States, other countries have a say in the TPP negotiations as well.