Craig Allen, president of the US-China Business Council, told the BBC that Ms Tai's speech seemed to be "an invitation to restart negotiations between the two countries." "As you know, they've been stalled since the [US presidential election] election. And I think that we'll see a little bit of engagement in the weeks ahead. But where that goes remains very uncertain. There was no clear roadmap or clear objectives for the next round of negotiations [in her speech]."