Taiwan and the United States are scheduled to hold a second round of negotiations Jan. 14-17 in Taipei on an ambitious 11-area trade initiative with the aim of working toward a trade agreement, the two sides announced Wednesday.

The U.S. delegation will be led by Assistant United States Trade Representative Terry McCartin, while Taiwan’s deputy trade representative Yang Jen-ni (???) will lead Taiwan’s delegation of officials from related government agencies in the talks, they said.

It will be the first time in recent years that a senior U.S. trade representative visits Taiwan.

The agenda of the meeting has not been finalized, but it is hoped that more progress will be made on trade issues under the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade, which was announced on June 1, 2022, according to Taiwan’s Office of Trade Negotiations.

Areas of particular interest are trade facilitation, small-and-medium-sized enterprises (SME), anti-corruption issues, and good regulatory practices, the office said.

The first round of negotiations on the initiative was held in New York on Nov. 8-9, 2022.

The initiative was unveiled by U.S. President Joe Biden after Taiwan was excluded from the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a U.S.-led multilateral partnership involving 12 other countries, which has been touted as a counterweight to China’s ambitions in the region.

Though it has been positioned as a trade deal, the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade does not cover the issue most typically covered in normal trade negotiations — tariff reduction.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel