The United States and Taiwan on August 17 announced that talks under the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade would begin this fall. The 11 trade areas that will be addressed in the negotiations include trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, anti-corruption, small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), agriculture, standards, labor, environment, state-owned enterprises, nonmarket policies and practices, and…
AmCham Taiwan’s Washington contacts see expanded opportunities for raising bilateral commercial cooperation to a new level. Taiwan and the U.S. are in the process of forging a much closer level of economic collaboration than ever before. That was the main takeaway from a series of 13 online conversations that AmCham Taiwan conducted with key contacts…
President Biden’s declaration during his trip to Asia last month that the United States would defend Taiwan has put the nature of the U.S. relationship with Taiwan back at the center of American foreign policy concerns. This development has fueled further discussion about how, apart from military involvement, the United States can best assist Taiwan….
By Courtney Donovan Smith U.S. and Taiwan Discuss Bilateral Relations Though Taiwan was disappointed by the delay of an expected visit by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she tested positive for COVID-19, other visits and meetings between Taiwan and the U.S. underscored the importance of the bilateral relationship as concerns grew that…
— By Brian Tsui and Grace Faerber Taiwan Opens Rep Office in Lithuania Taiwan last month opened its Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania, the first of the island’s de facto embassies in Europe to use the name “Taiwan.” In response, China has downgraded its diplomatic representation in Lithuania to that of charge d’affaires. According to Lithuanian…
J. Michael Cole’s comprehensive new book describes the numerous and complex challenges facing Taiwan, as well as the Tsai Ing-wen administration’s measured, pragmatic approach to handling them. In Cross-Strait Relations Since 2016: The End of the Illusion, Taipei-based policy analyst J. Michael Cole provides readers with a nuanced account of President Tsai’s strategic approach to…
Nothing puts one in a reflective mood like turning 70. As the September issue of TOPICS showed, AmCham has been mulling over U.S.-Taiwan ties, of which the Chamber has been such a significant part since its founding on September 14, 1951. Another source of reflection has been a monograph we are co-producing with the prestigious…
As Taiwanese companies look to expand their operations and investments in the U.S., Taiwan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) has been seeking to support their efforts through close cooperation with the U.S. government to facilitate bilateral economic relations. The Office points to two significant events this year: resumption of high-level trade negotiations with the U.S….
William Brent Christensen began serving as Director of the American Institute in Taiwan in August 2018, but that was by no means his first Taiwan assignment. During his three-decade-long career as a foreign service officer, Christensen has served in Taiwan on three separate occasions, including a stint as a consular official in the 1990s and…
The Biden administration’s announcement that it would resume trade and investment negotiations with Taiwan after a five-year hiatus is a more significant development than some may realize. Since the mid-1990s, the “TIFA talks,” typically held each year, have proven to be a useful vehicle for ironing out policy differences between the two sides and setting the stage…
