U.S. to form separate economic consultative body with Taiwan, excluding IPEF

The United States decided to seek economic cooperation by establishing a separate channel with Taiwan, which was excluded from the Indo-Pacific Economic Council led by the United States on the 1st local time.

Sera Bianchi, deputy head of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and Deng Zhenzhong, head of the Taiwan Economic and Trade Office, decided to launch the "US-Taiwan Initiative on Trade in the 21st Century" after a video conference on the same day, Reuters and others reported.

The two sides are expected to hold their first meeting in the United States later this month.

The United States launched the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), in which 13 countries in the Indo-Pacific, including the United States, participate in order to curb China's economic influence on the 23rd of last month while President Joe Biden was visiting Japan.

Seven out of 10 ASEAN countries, including Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and India, participated in this event.

After Taiwan announced its intention to join the IPEF, more than 200 lawmakers, including 52 senators from the US Congress, urged Taiwan to join the IPEF, but were excluded from the IPEF.

Topics for the United States and Taiwan to discuss through the new initiative include anti-corruption, digital trade standards, labor rights, environmental standards, and non-market access practices.

A U.S. official said the initiative is aimed at quickly establishing a new economic roadmap with Taiwan and is a way to better reflect the unique characteristics of the U.S.-Taiwan trade relationship.

According to the 'one China' policy, the United States recognizes China as the only legitimate government and China claims Taiwan as part of its territory, but Taiwan is a very important region for the United States to contain China.