U.S. confirms Taiwan has begun TPP consultation process

18/06/2015 10:29 - 613 Views

Washington, June 18 (CNA) The United States has confirmed for the first time that Taiwan has begun the process of consultations to join the Tran-Pacific Partnership, a U.S.-initiated regional trade bloc.

In a Monday speech at Washington think tank the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said that economically, TPP would bind together a group that represents 40 percent of global GDP, and about a third of world trade.

Strategically, TPP is the avenue through which the United States, working with nearly a dozen other countries, and another half dozen waiting in the wings, is playing a leading role in writing the rules of the road for a critical region in flux.

Pressed by former Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky, Froman declined to give a full list of countries, but named Taiwan along with South Korea, the Philippines and Thailand as four that had said publicly that they would like to consider joining, begin to go through the process of consultations, that leads to a decision of whether or not they join TPP.

The comments marked the first time that the top U.S. trade official has confirmed Taiwan's participation in the consultation process.

Source: focustaiwan.tw