On June 1, 2023, Taiwan and the United States signed the first of what is expected to be a series of agreements under the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade to strengthen their economic and trade relationship. The agreement was signed in Washington by the American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, with Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Sarah Bianchi present. According to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, the first agreement is the most comprehensive trade agreement between Taiwan and the U.S. in the past 44 years since 1979.
Specifically, the first agreement covers the issues related to customs administration and trade facilitation, good regulatory practices, services regulation, anticorruption, and small and medium-sized enterprises. According to President Tsai, more negotiations will follow, and the covered areas will be expanded. Negotiations on the remaining seven chapters are anticipated to be completed before the end of 2023.
According to the Office of Trade Negotiation, Executive Yuan, the first agreement simplifies procedures for customs clearance and border inspection. In particular, the agreement enables digital custom clearance to speed up the process by which goods enter both countries. Taiwan and the United States will follow up by setting up contact points to communicate on the matters covered by the first agreement. At the same time, Taiwan and the United States will establish a consultation mechanism to handle disputes between the two sides on the implementation of the first agreement and regulate the procedure for amendments, review, and termination. One notable feature of the first agreement is that the Chinese and English versions of the agreement will be equally binding. For more information about the US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade, please visit
https://www.ey.gov.tw/otn/ECCBE3B0FFE21C25/d828e3ca-e255-49b1-adc4-4e49865aec03.
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