Source: United States Senator for Delaware – Tom Carper
‘Including Taiwan in the IPEF would be an invaluable signal of our rock-solid commitment to Taiwan and its prosperity and freedom.’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on International Trade, joined Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and 50 of their Senate colleagues in urging the Biden Administration to include Taiwan as a partner in the proposed Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). In a letter to President Biden, the senators noted Taiwan’s importance to the United States as an important trading partner and underscored that failing to include Taiwan in IPEF runs counter to U.S. economic interests in the region.
“IPEF can be a meaningful first step for the United States to assure its allies and partners that we are economically engaged in the region, which accounts for sixty percent of the world economy and two-thirds of all economic growth over the last five years. For IPEF to be a useful vehicle to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific, however, we must make sure that all of America’s regional allies and partners are included,” the senators wrote. “This is just one necessary aspect to ensuring the framework is competitive in a region already saturated with economic treaties and agendas.”
“The more economic engagement U.S. and allies and partners have with Taiwan, the stronger our collective resilience against coercion,” the senators added. “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shows the value of tangible economic support by the United States and like-minded allies and partners, and the same is true for Taiwan. Including Taiwan in the IPEF would be an invaluable signal of our rock-solid commitment to Taiwan and its prosperity and freedom.”
Background:
Chairman Carper has long called for the United States to re-engage with our Asia-Pacific allies following the previous Administration’s misguided decision to withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Last year, Chairman Carper sent a letter to U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Katherine Tai calling for the U.S. to reassert trade leadership in the Asia-Pacific region by engaging again with allies to develop comprehensive, multilateral free-trade partnerships. Chairman Carper and Ranking Member Cornyn (R-Texas) also penned an op-ed last year in the Washington Post arguing that the U.S. must re-engage our Asia-Pacific allies to forge multilateral trade partnerships that would counter China’s geopolitical rise in the region and benefit American manufacturers, farmers and small businesses.
You can read the full letter HERE.
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