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Blinken stays coy on Taiwan's IPEF prospects

ROC Central News Agency

04/29/2022 01:06 PM

Washington, April 28 (CNA) U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday said that the U.S. will "engage virtually every country" in the region in creating the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), as he dismissed concerns that the U.S. had shut the door on Taiwan.

At a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Representative Ann Wagner quizzed Blinken on whether Taiwan was being excluded from joining the IPEF, an initiative proposed by U.S. President Joe Biden in 2021 with the aim of enhancing its economic engagement in the Indo-Pacific region.

"I am particularly concerned that Taiwan is being shut out of the Indo-Pacific economic framework, even though the administration may try to kind of hide this by never formally closing the doors so to speak to participation, Taiwan's offer to become a full member is not being accepted," Wagner said.

Wagner said the policy to deny Taiwan's participation in IPEF is "self-defeating and dangerous" given that Taiwan was the U.S.'s eighth-largest trading partner in 2021 and one of its largest trading partners in Asia.

On this question of the IPEF, "there is no such policy," Blinken said in response to Wagner. "There is nothing that is closing the door on anyone, including Taiwan."

The U.S. has just begun the process of launching the IPEF, including beginning conversations with a number of countries as potential partners, Blinken said. "It's going to be open, it's going to be inclusive, and I imagine we're going to be engaging virtually every country in the region."

Wagner said Taiwan had made it clear to the U.S. in recent bilateral talks that becoming a full member of the IPEF is its "number one and top request" and that Taiwan's government has changed its domestic law, hoping to start free trade negotiations.

She urged Blinken to send more reaffirming messages to Taiwan.

"As a rule of law, democracy, and a top global trading partner, Taiwan should certainly be a top priority for the framework," Wagner said. "But instead, this administration is marginalizing Taiwan and showing the Chinese Communist Party that the United States is deterred from working with a critical partner."

Similar concerns have been raised by U.S. lawmakers recently.

A bipartisan group of 200 U.S. House representatives on March 30 published a letter addressed to U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai to petition for Taiwan's inclusion in IPEF.

Reuters quoted unnamed sources as reporting on March 31 that Raimondo told a closed-door meeting of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee the week before that the administration was not contemplating Taiwan's inclusion at this time.

(By Stacy Hsu and Shih Hsiu-chuan)

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