Taiwan and U.S. to sign first Trade Initiative agreement

Taiwanese and U.S. authorities will sign the first bilateral trade agreement under a new economic initiative.

The document will be signed in Washington. The signing ceremony will be attended by Sarah Bianchi, deputy U.S. trade negotiator.

The office of the U.S. trade negotiator distributed a statement on May 19 saying that the U.S. authorities and Taiwan had completed negotiations on the first part of the so-called U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on Trade in the 21st Century. In particular, the parties reached consensus on such issues as customs procedures, optimization of goods turnover, legal regulation of production and services, anti-corruption measures as well as cooperation in the sphere of small and medium business regulation.

In the near future, the two sides will continue talks on the following seven topics under the initiative: agriculture, standardization, e-commerce, labor, environment, state-owned enterprises, and public policy on non-market issues.

In total, the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on Trade in the 21st Century includes 81 articles. This document will be the most ambitious trade and economic agreement between Taiwan and the United States since 1979. U.S.-Taiwan trade reached $136 billion in 2022.

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