President Ma: Main Trading Partners to Engage in FTA Talks with Taiwan

President Ma: Main Trading Partners to Engage in FTA Talks with Taiwan

Sources: All Taipei Newspapers

July 1, 2010

President MaYing-jeou will hold an international press conference to announce his national strategy for the post-ECFA era at 3:00 P.M. this afternoon.  President Ma will explain the direction of Taiwan’s economic development and the blueprint for Taiwan’s industrial development now that a cross-Strait ECFA has been signed with the Mainland.  President Ma will also, in his capacity as convener of the FTA task force, appeal to Taiwan’s major trading partners to move forward with Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with Taiwan by announcing Taiwan’s economic development policies for regional integration.

President Ma explained to a visiting group of Taiwanese political scientists in the US that Taiwan’s major trading partners would be under less pressure from the Mainland and have greater incentives to conclude FTAs with Taiwan now that both sides across the Taiwan Strait had signed the ECFA.  President Ma added that when Taiwan’s Economics Minister attended APEC and WTO meetings, he had received information from several countries that they were willing to engage in FTA talks with Taiwan.

President Ma stressed that he could not guarantee that Taiwan could sign FTAs with many countries now that the cross-Strait ECFA had been signed with the Mainland, but stated that there was a definite window of opportunity.  Taiwan would like to sign FTAs with its major trading partners, but none of those countries had diplomatic ties with the Republic of China.  So they took their cues from how the Mainland responded to Taiwan’s overtures.  Under these circumstances, for a long time, it had been quite difficult for Taiwan to make any breakthroughs, said President Ma. 

The American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (ACCT) believed that Taiwan was in a better position to push for expanded investment by foreign investors already based in Taiwan, now that Taiwan had signed the cross-Strait ECFA and the Agreement on the Protection and Cooperation on Intellectual Property Rights.  However, the ACCT also stated that it was still too early to attract more foreign direct investment to Taiwan; moreover, the Taiwan government should continue to improve certain existing problems such as laws and regulations on finance and taxation, in order to promote Taiwan’s investment environment.

The ACCT went on to say that it would be delighted to see Taiwan strengthen economic relations with the Mainland, adding that Taiwan should also maintain balanced trade relations with the US.  Therefore, Taiwan should restart talks on TIFA (Trade and Investment Framework Agreement) with the US as soon as possible, concluded the ACCT.

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