On August 2, 2022, the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi traveled to Taiwan with a congressional delegation. This made her the first sitting U.S. House Speaker to visit Taiwan since 1997. During a joint press conference following a meeting with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, Speaker Pelosi said that a U.S.-Taiwan trade agreement might be “possible and soon.”
“In our bilateral meeting, we discussed key opportunities to deepen our partnership: upholding democracy and human rights and respect the individual, combating – well, I’ll get around to combat.
– House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Three areas that I just mentioned – security, economy, governance. Security: our relationship is a strong one. And we discussed how we can make it stronger and up to date. Our economy: we talked about a trade agreement that might be possible and soon. And in governance: that, among other things, and in governance, I want to salute Taiwan for the leadership you have had in fighting COVID. Probably one of the highest rates of vaccination, but also the lowest number of deaths from COVID. A real model for the world. It’s about science, but it’s also about community acceptance of a plan. And that is called leadership. So thank you for that lesson to all of us.”
The US-Taiwan Bilateral Trade Agreement Coalition welcomes these comments of support for a trade agreement with Taiwan from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Support for Taiwan
House Speaker Pelosi traveled to Taiwan as the head of a Congressional Delegation on a tour of the Indo-Pacific. Delegation members were:
- Chairman Gregory Meeks, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
- Chairman Mark Takano, Chair of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs
- Congresswoman Suzan DelBene, Vice Chair, House Ways and Means Committee
- Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, Member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence; Chair of the Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform
- Congressman Andy Kim, Member of the House Armed Services Committee; Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee
In a previous statement on this Congressional Delegation visit to Taiwan, Speaker Pelosi said, “Our Congressional delegation’s visit should be seen as a strong statement that America stands with Taiwan. We came to Taiwan to listen to, learn from and show our support for the people of Taiwan, who have built a thriving Democracy that stands as one of the freest and most open in the world.“