Brussels backs up on boosting trade, economic relations with Taiwan

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Lawmakers in Brussels have taken a step back from pursuing their plan to unveil a new strategy for EU trade and economic dealings with Taiwan, presumably hoping that sour relations with China won’t become worse. For months, EU and Beijing have been spatting due to bilateral sanctions instated by both sides, which stalled signing of the so-called Comprehensive Agreement on Investment they had agreed to in 2020.

The European Union was poised to announce its confidential plan for a strategic format with Taiwan, and anonymous sources have told the South China Morning Post that it was supposed to have been announced last Friday. The format would have increased regular meetings between the two sides by expanding their annual meetings, with hopes to collaborate specifically on semiconductors. The EU’s trade commission scuttled communication of the plan at the last minute.

China considers Taiwan a breakaway province and any sort of recognition of it an affront to its sovereignty. While EU lawmakers believe boosting trade relations with Taiwan fits within Brussels’ “one China” policy, and some politicians in Czech Republic, Lithuania and Slovakia have been pushing to keep Taipei on the EU agenda, Brussels is also looking to re-engage China.

“The Taiwan question is China’s internal affairs,” said China’s ambassador to the EU, Zhang Ming, in a webinar this week, explaining that attempts to recognize Taiwan violated the terms of relations between Beijing and Brussels.

Source: South China Morning Post