Taiwan and U.S. Hold Economic Dialogue, Discussing Supply Chains and Other Issues

On November 23, the United States and Taiwan met for the second annual U.S.-Taiwan Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue (EPPD). The two sides discussed supply chain issues in multiple sectors, including semiconductors, health products, and electric vehicles.

The U.S. side was led by Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jose W. Fernandez. The Taiwanese side was led by Taiwan Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua and Minister of Science and Technology Wu Tsung-tsong.

According to the State Department note about the meeting, “the dialogue featured extensive discussions on supply chain resiliency, countering economic coercion, promoting the digital economy, strengthening 5G network security, and advancing collaboration in a variety of science and technology fields.”

The Taiwanese government provided more details on the meeting in its own press release. With regard to the supply chain discussion, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted (link in Chinese) that:

Taiwan and the United States discussed strengthening cooperation to resolve bottlenecks in critical supply chains and ensure long-term resilience of critical supply chains, and thereby promoting economic recovery, prosperity and security. Both parties expressed the hope to further cooperate on improving the security and resilience of the semiconductor supply chain, and emphasized supporting the resilience of the semiconductor industry supply chain through promoting the development of the semiconductor ecosystem. In addition, the two sides emphasized the importance of rebuilding a more resilient public health supply chain and deepening the clean energy supply chain.

Regarding economic coercion, it noted that:

Both sides believe that all economies should not be subject to external coercion. Therefore, Taiwan, the United States and like-minded countries should continue to strengthen coordination and cooperation to jointly respond to economic coercion that violates international trade rules.

With regard to the digital economy and 5G, the statement highlighted that:

Both parties hope to convene the 4th Taiwan-U.S. Digital Economy Forum under the EPPD framework next year. The two parties will continue to deepen cooperation in areas such as 5G security, open network architecture, and free flow of information, and plan to explore how to create a favorable environment for innovation, such as Open RAN.

During a press conference (link in Chinese) after the meeting, Wang said that “in the semiconductor section, we talked about the current short-term supply chain bottlenecks. More important is the long-term cooperation in the future.” With regard to energy, the two sides discussed high-efficiency batteries and renewable energy. Wang also noted that “Taiwan's role in electric vehicle supply chain is another advantage, in which we can also cooperate more with the United States.”

Wang also noted that during the meeting, Taiwan brought up the hopes that the “United States could provide assistance,” including visa, entry and subsidies, to Taiwanese investments in the semiconductor sector, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s investment in the United States.

In response to a question regarding Taiwan’s application to join the CPTPP, Wang said that Taiwan’s application was not brought up during the meeting.