A group of Taiwan's lawmakers is in the U.S. at a particularly crucial time in the two countries' relationship. The head of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party's mission in the U.S. shines a light on what the delegation hopes to achieve.
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00:00Visit comes at a time when Taiwan is trying to deal with Trump's tariff on the country,
00:05which is a potential 32%. Is the purpose of this visit to negotiate trade?
00:11Right. My understanding is that the legislative delegation is not here to negotiate trade.
00:17The trade negotiations are under the purview of Taiwan's government and this visit is
00:22actually part of a long-standing practice of the parliamentary diplomacy.
00:27So it consists of members of the U.S. caucus and the foreign and national defense committee.
00:37President Lai has announced the early outset of this tariff negotiation would be led by an
00:46interagency tax force led by the vice premier, Zheng Li-jun. Both sides started the negotiation
00:53since April 11th. From what I heard, the discussion has been going well.
01:01You said this isn't specifically geared towards trade. Historically, what have these parliamentary
01:06groups, these parliamentary visits to Washington, D.C. been about?
01:10Many of the touch points between the U.S. and Taiwan delegation of such will likely to engage with
01:19their congressional counterparts as well as broader Washington's policy community. But I imagine this
01:27time around, as they say in the media, tariff and maybe security issues will come up in these type of
01:34discussions. What do you think the U.S. policymakers will be looking to get out of these
01:39talks or what kind of points would you think they'll be talking about?
01:43I'll just point out Treasury Secretary Besant mentioned there are 15 to 18 important trading
01:51partners that the U.S. will prioritize in the trading negotiations and tariff negotiations. And
01:56Taiwan is the U.S. seven largest trading partner. So we're certainly in that ballpark. Overall, the U.S.
02:04is looking to reduce trade imbalance reinvigorate U.S. industrial base, which also confirms to Taiwan's
02:11economic strategy as our major investment and procurement of energy and defense articles are
02:18already underway.