Taipei, June 13 (EFECOM).- The president of Taiwan, William Lai (Lai Ching-te), highlighted this Thursday the importance of strengthening economic and commercial ties between the island and the United States, something that would allow “guaranteeing” the “ security” of supply chains.
“Further deepening our economic and trade relations will not only benefit the people of both parties, but will also guarantee the security of supply chains,” the president said before a meeting with the former US Deputy National Security Advisor. Matt Pottinger (2019-2021) in Taipei.
Along these lines, Lai called for resolving the issue of double taxation “as soon as possible”, as well as advancing the negotiations framed in the “US-Taiwan Trade Initiative on Trade in the 21st Century”, underway since 2022.
Under this initiative, the island and the North American country signed last year the first part of a partial trade agreement, which has been described by Taipei as the broadest trade pact between both parties since Washington established diplomatic ties with Beijing in 1979. .
For the island president, these negotiations could lead to the signing of a “bilateral trade agreement” between the United States and Taiwan, an island that plays a fundamental role in the supply chains of the main American technology companies, such as Apple or Nvidia.
Pottinger, for his part, highlighted the need for Taiwan and the United States to coordinate when it comes to “maintaining the security” of the island, an issue that is “closely linked” to the security of the United States, Japan, South Korea , Philippines and other countries in the region.
“One of the lessons we learned from the Ukraine war is that the cost of deterrence is much less than the cost of war,” said the former deputy national security adviser.
Visits by US representatives to Taiwan have been constant in the last two years and have continued even after the crisis between Beijing and Washington caused by the trip to Taipei in August 2022 of the then president of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, which angered China.
Taiwan – where the Chinese nationalist army withdrew after defeat by communist troops in the civil war – has been governed autonomously since 1949, although China claims sovereignty over the island, which it considers a rebellious province for whose ‘reunification’ has not ruled out the use of force. EFECOM
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