I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 910
To require the Secretary of the Treasury to pursue more equitable treatment
of Taiwan at the international financial institutions, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY4, 2025
Mrs. K
IM(for herself and Mr. GREENof Texas) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To require the Secretary of the Treasury to pursue more
equitable treatment of Taiwan at the international finan-
cial institutions, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Taiwan Non-Discrimi-4
nation Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6
Congress finds as follows: 7
(1) As enshrined in its Articles of Agreement, 8
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is devoted 9
to promoting international monetary cooperation, fa-10
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cilitating the expansion and balanced growth of 1
international trade, encouraging exchange stability, 2
and avoiding competitive exchange depreciation. 3
(2) Taiwan is the 21st largest economy in the 4
world and the 10th largest goods trading partner of 5
the United States. 6
(3) Although Taiwan is not an IMF member, it 7
is a member of the World Trade Organization, the 8
Asian Development Bank, and the Asia-Pacific Eco-9
nomic Cooperation forum. 10
(4) According to the January 2020 Report on 11
Macroeconomic and Foreign Exchange Policies of 12
Major Trading Partners of the United States, pub-13
lished by the Department of the Treasury, Taiwan 14
held $471,900,000,000 in foreign exchange reserves, 15
more than major economies such as India, South 16
Korea, and Brazil. 17
(5) According to section 4(d) of the Taiwan Re-18
lations Act (Public Law 96–8), enacted on April 10, 19
1979, ‘‘Nothing in this Act may be construed as a 20
basis for supporting the exclusion or expulsion of 21
Taiwan from continued membership in any inter-22
national financial institution or any other inter-23
national organization.’’. 24
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(6) Taiwan held membership in the IMF for 9 1
years following the recognition of the People’s Re-2
public of China (PRC) by the United Nations, and 3
16 Taiwan staff members at the Fund were allowed 4
to continue their employment after the PRC was 5
seated at the IMF in 1980. As James M. Boughton 6
has noted in his Silent Revolution: The International 7
Monetary Fund 1979–1989, even as the PRC was 8
seated, the United States Executive Director to the 9
IMF, Sam Y. Cross, expressed support on behalf of 10
the United States Government for ‘‘some kind of as-11
sociation between Taiwan and the Fund’’. 12
(7) On September 27, 1994, in testimony be-13
fore the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations re-14
garding the 1994 Taiwan Policy Review, then-As-15
sistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific 16
Affairs Winston Lord stated: ‘‘Recognizing Taiwan’s 17
important role in transnational issues, we will sup-18
port its membership in organizations where state-19
hood is not a prerequisite, and we will support op-20
portunities for Taiwan’s voice to be heard in organi-21
zations where its membership is not possible.’’. 22
(8) The Congress has repeatedly reaffirmed 23
support for this policy, including in Public Laws 24
107–10, 107–158, 108–28, 108–235, 113–17, and 25
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114–139, and the unanimous House and Senate 1
passage of the Taiwan Allies International Protec-2
tion and Enhancement Initiative (TAIPEI) Act of 3
2019. 4
(9) In its fact sheet, entitled ‘‘U.S. Relations 5
with Taiwan’’, published on August 31, 2018, the 6
Department of State asserts: ‘‘The United States 7
supports Taiwan’s membership in international orga-8
nizations that do not require statehood as a condi-9
tion of membership and encourages Taiwan’s mean-10
ingful participation in international organizations 11
where its membership is not possible.’’. 12
(10) According to the Articles of Agreement of 13
the IMF, ‘‘membership shall be open to other coun-14
tries’’, subject to conditions prescribed by the Board 15
of Governors of the IMF. 16
(11) In the IMF publication ‘‘Membership and 17
Nonmembership in the International Monetary 18
Fund: A Study in International Law and Organiza-19
tion’’, Joseph Gold, the then-General Counsel and 20
Director of the Legal Department of the IMF, elabo-21
rated on the differences between the terms ‘‘coun-22
tries’’ and ‘‘states’’, noting that ‘‘the word ‘country’ 23
may have been adopted because of the absence of 24
agreement on the definition of a ‘state’’’ and, with 25
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respect to the use of ‘‘countries’’ and applications 1
for IMF membership, ‘‘the absence of any adjective 2
in the Articles emphasizes the breadth of the discre-3
tion that the Fund may exercise in admitting coun-4
tries to membership’’. According to Mr. Gold, ‘‘the 5
desire to give the Fund flexibility in dealing with ap-6
plications may explain not only the absence of any 7
adjective that qualifies ‘countries’ but also the choice 8
of that word itself’’. 9
(12) In his IMF study, Mr. Gold further ob-10
serves, ‘‘in the practice of the Fund the concepts of 11
independence and sovereignty have been avoided on 12
the whole as a mode of expressing a criterion for 13
membership in the Fund’’. He continues, ‘‘Although 14
the Fund usually takes into account the recognition 15
or nonrecognition of an entity as a state, there are 16
no rules or even informal understandings on the ex-17
tent to which an applicant must have been recog-18
nized by members or other international organiza-19
tions before the Fund will regard it as eligible for 20
membership.’’. In fact, when considering an applica-21
tion for membership where the status of an appli-22
cant may not be resolved, Mr. Gold writes ‘‘there 23
have been occasions on which the Fund has made a 24
finding before decisions had been taken by the 25
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United Nations or by most members or by members 1
with a majority of the total voting power.’’ Mr. Gold 2
concludes, ‘‘the Fund makes its own findings on 3
whether an applicant is a ‘country’, and makes them 4
solely for its own purposes.’’. 5
(13) Although not a member state of the 6
United Nations, the Republic of Kosovo is a member 7
of both the IMF and the World Bank, having joined 8
both organizations on June 29, 2009. 9
(14) On October 26, 2021, Secretary of State 10
Antony Blinken issued a statement in support of 11
Taiwan’s ‘‘robust, meaningful participation’’ in the 12
United Nations system, which includes the IMF, the 13
World Bank, and other specialized United Nations 14
agencies. Secretary of State Blinken noted, ‘‘As the 15
international community faces an unprecedented 16
number of complex and global issues, it is critical for 17
all stakeholders to help address these problems. This 18
includes the 24 million people who live in Taiwan. 19
Taiwan’s meaningful participation in the UN system 20
is not a political issue, but a pragmatic one.’’. He 21
continued, ‘‘Taiwan’s exclusion undermines the im-22
portant work of the UN and its related bodies, all 23
of which stand to benefit greatly from its contribu-24
tions.’’. 25
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(15) In October 2024, Taiwan announced it 1
would seek IMF membership, with the Taipei Eco-2
nomic and Cultural Representative Office in the 3
United States stating, ‘‘Taiwan’s membership at the 4
IMF would help boost financial resilience.’’. 5
SEC. 3. SENSE OF THE CONGRESS. 6
It is the sense of the Congress that— 7
(1) the size, significance, and connectedness of 8
the Taiwanese economy highlight the importance of 9
greater participation by Taiwan in the International 10
Monetary Fund, given the purposes of the Fund ar-11
ticulated in its Articles of Agreement; and 12
(2) the experience of Taiwan in developing a vi-13
brant and advanced economy under democratic gov-14
ernance and the rule of law should inform the work 15
of the international financial institutions, including 16
through increased participation by Taiwan in the in-17
stitutions. 18
SEC. 4. SUPPORT FOR TAIWAN ADMISSION TO THE IMF. 19
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The United States Governor of 20
the International Monetary Fund (in this section referred 21
to as the ‘‘Fund’’) shall use the voice and vote of the 22
United States to vigorously support— 23
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(1) the admission of Taiwan as a member of 1
the Fund, to the extent that admission is sought by 2
Taiwan; 3
(2) participation by Taiwan in regular surveil-4
lance activities of the Fund with respect to the eco-5
nomic and financial policies of Taiwan, consistent 6
with Article IV consultation procedures of the Fund; 7
(3) employment opportunities for Taiwan na-8
tionals, without regard to any consideration that, in 9
the determination of the United States Governor, 10
does not generally restrict the employment of nation-11
als of member countries of the Fund; and 12
(4) the ability of Taiwan to receive appropriate 13
technical assistance and training by the Fund. 14
(b) U
NITEDSTATESPOLICY.—It is the policy of the 15
United States not to discourage or otherwise deter Taiwan 16
from seeking admission as a member of the Fund. 17
(c) W
AIVER.—The Secretary of the Treasury may 18
waive any requirement of subsection (a) for up to 1 year 19
at a time on reporting to Congress that providing the 20
waiver will substantially promote the objective of securing 21
the meaningful participation of Taiwan at each inter-22
national financial institution (as defined in section 23
1701(c)(2) of the International Financial Institutions 24
Act). 25
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(d) SUNSET.—This section shall have no force or ef-1
fect on the earlier of— 2
(1) the date of approval by the Board of Gov-3
ernors of the Fund for the admission of Taiwan as 4
a member of the Fund; or 5
(2) the date that is 10 years after the date of 6
the enactment of this Act. 7
SEC. 5. TESTIMONY REQUIREMENT. 8
In each of the next 7 years in which the Secretary 9
of the Treasury is required by section 1705(b) of the 10
International Financial Institutions Act to present testi-11
mony, the Secretary shall include in the testimony a de-12
scription of the efforts of the United States to support 13
the greatest participation practicable by Taiwan at each 14
international financial institution (as defined in section 15
1701(c)(2) of such Act). 16
Æ
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