Taiwan and the United States will hold a new round of talks under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA).
The government announced that the talks will open on April 4 in Washington DC. The talks will be headed by Taiwan’s Vice Economics Minister Cho Shih-chao, and Acting Deputy US Trade Representative Wendy Cutler.
Taiwan’s economics ministry said that officials will seek to demonstrate to the US all the efforts the government has made to liberalize trade. It also said that Taiwan wants US support for its participation in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade bloc.
TIFA talks resumed in March 2013 after a suspension of more than five years over a US beef import dispute. The resumption of talks followed Taiwan’s lifting of a ban on certain US beef products.
Taiwanese officials said that important progress was made in the previous TIFA meeting, including the establishment of an investment working group to discuss issues related to a possible bilateral investment agreement.