The forum's purpose was to discuss a variety of policy tools to restructure supply chains while ensuring that businesses and economies can thrive.

The program explored bilateral, regional, and global opportunities for cooperation on this shared priority. The Director of the American Institute in Taiwan, Brent Christensen, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, the President of the Czech Senate Miloš Vystrčil, European Economic and Trade Office Representative, Filip Grzegorzewski, Japan-Taiwan Exchange Representative Hiroyasu Izumi, and TAITRA Chairman James Huang spoke during the event.

Below please find a joint statement describing this new partnership.

Joint Statement on Securing Supply Chains

As the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical uncertainties continue to impact supply chains worldwide, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) will strengthen consultations and cooperation on supply chain restructuring and resiliency, especially in the ICT and medical sectors.

This partnership will focus on:

• Encouraging partners to bring supply chains closer to home or like-minded economies.
• Engaging with like-minded partners to develop new supply chains based on shared values, standards, and best practices to create crisis-resilient supply chain networks.
• Ensuring that supply chains are secure and free from political coercion.
• To strengthen this partnership, we will seek to share best practices and cooperate on a range of activities, including:
• Increasing the frequency, size, and scope of conferences within and outside of Taiwan.
• Expanding the depth and breadth of participation from like-minded countries and economies.
• Establishing an Experts Advisory Board Network to capitalize on expertise from the private sector, industry associations, academia, and think tank community.
• Coordinating virtual and physical delegations to third countries to facilitate supply chain restructuring.
• Sharing best practices to incentivize and support the reorientation of supply chains to reliable partners.
• Developing supply chain resilience in like-minded priority regions, such as India, ASEAN, and the Visegrad Group will collectively reinforce  Taiwan´s New Southbound Policy and U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy.