TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan&nbsp;and the United States will&nbsp;sign&nbsp;the&nbsp;first&nbsp;deal&nbsp;under&nbsp;a&nbsp;new&nbsp;trade&nbsp;talks&nbsp;framework&nbsp;on Thursday, both governments said, boosting ties between the two at a time of heightened tensions with China over the democratically-governed island.
Taiwan&nbsp;and the United States started talks&nbsp;under&nbsp;what is called the&nbsp;U.S.-Taiwan&nbsp;Initiative on 21st Century&nbsp;Trade&nbsp;last August, after Washington excluded&nbsp;Taiwan&nbsp;from its larger pan-Asian&nbsp;trade&nbsp;initiative, the Indo-Pacific Economic&nbsp;Framework.
Taiwan's Office of&nbsp;Trade&nbsp;Negotiations said in a brief statement the&nbsp;first&nbsp;agreement&nbsp;under&nbsp;the&nbsp;framework&nbsp;would be&nbsp;signed in Washington on Thursday morning&nbsp;U.S. time, but gave no other details.
The&nbsp;U.S.&nbsp;Trade&nbsp;Representative's office said Deputy United States&nbsp;Trade&nbsp;Representative Sarah Bianchi would attend the event, but also did not elaborate.
Last month, the two sides reached agreement on the&nbsp;first&nbsp;part of their&nbsp;trade&nbsp;initiative, covering customs and border procedures, regulatory practices, and small business.
After the initial agreement is&nbsp;signed, negotiations will start on other, more complicated&nbsp;trade&nbsp;areas including agriculture, digital&nbsp;trade, labour and environmental standards, state-owned enterprises, and non-market policies and practices, the USTR has previously said.
The pact is not expected to alter goods tariffs, but proponents say it will strengthen economic bonds between the United States and&nbsp;Taiwan, open the island to more&nbsp;U.S. exports, and increase&nbsp;Taiwan's ability to resist economic coercion from China.
Beijing has denounced the&nbsp;trade&nbsp;talks as it does with all forms of high level engagement between&nbsp;Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory, and the United States.
Taiwan&nbsp;strongly rejects China's sovereignty claims, which Beijing has been trying to push on Taipei through repeated military activities including war games around the island.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Michael Perry)

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Taiwan, U.S. to sign first deal under new trade framework