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Taiwan lagging on FTA:
EU official
DOING THE BUSINESS: The European Peopleˇ¦s Party
on Thursday hosted a debate to discuss current and future trade relations
between the EU and Taiwan
By Shih Hsiu-chuan / Staff Reporter
Treasurer of the European Chamber
of Commerce Taipei, Stefan Johansson, left, representative David Lin, center,
and Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang talk about Taiwan and the
EU signing a free-trade agreement in Brussels yesterday.
Photo: CNA
Despite being the EUˇ¦s third-largest
trading partner in Asia, Taiwan lags behind many Asian countries in negotiating
a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the economic bloc, Tamas Maczak, acting head
of the European Economic and Trade Office, said in Taipei yesterday.
ˇ§Some countries started earlier. [South] Korea and India are very good examples.
These negotiations started three or four years ago and proceeded to formal
consultations and evaluations of the feasibility of an FTA. Compared to that,
probably Taiwan started a little bit late,ˇ¨ Maczak told reporters.
The center-right European Peopleˇ¦s Party (EPP) on Thursday hosted a debate to
discuss current and future trade relations between the EU and Taiwan, the first
such hearing on the topic held at the European parliament.
It came after the parliament in May adopted a resolution strongly in favor of
enhancing EU-Taiwan economic ties and the signing of an EU-Taiwan economic
cooperation agreement.
Maczak said the hearing was ˇ§an important stepˇ¨ in explaining to the European
Council and the European Commission how such an agreement could benefit both the
EU and Taiwan.
The EU-South Korea FTA took effect yesterday, the EUˇ¦s first trade deal with an
Asian country.
ˇ§[FTA] negotiations are ongoing with India, Singapore and Malaysia. [On]
Vietnam, there was a decision to start negotiations and only recently I saw in
the newspapers that the Indonesian ambassador announced that negotiations might
start. The recent EU-Japan summit concluded that the possibility of an FTA would
be very closely examined,ˇ¨ Maczak said.
The European Commission ˇ§is of the opinion that we should continue our
cooperation and annual consultations between the EU and Taiwan,ˇ¨ he said.
Asked whether the EUˇ¦s ˇ§one Chinaˇ¨ policy was a hindrance to the EU negotiating
an FTA with Taiwan, Maczak said the EU ˇ§is not going to changeˇ¨ its stance, but
that ˇ§there are always practical ways of finding solutions.ˇ¨
Despite Taiwanˇ¦s special status in the international arena, it is also a member
of the WTO, under which EU members negotiate all kinds of agreements, he said.
A press statement posted on the Web site of the EPP quoted Laima Andrikiene, who
sits on the European parliamentˇ¦s International Trade Committee, as saying
ˇ§European industry and businesses have a lot to gain and little to lose from
deeper trade relations with Taiwan.ˇ¨
At the hearing, Andrikiene highlighted the significant opportunities that exist
for European exports of services and stressed the heavy dependence of the
European IT sector on Taiwanese suppliers of high-end components and on
Taiwanese contract manufacturers, the statement said.
ˇ§Members of the European parliament should take the initiative and advance the
discussion on EU-Taiwan trade relations ... It is time we sent a strong signal
to the Council and to member states that parliament stands behind the idea of
deepening trade ties by negotiating a free-trade agreement with Taiwan,ˇ¨
Andrikiene said.
Daniel Caspary, EPP group coordinator on the International Trade Committee,
stressed the need to strengthen cooperation between the EU and Taiwan, and to
push for more comprehensive trade relations, the statement said.
ˇ§Europe, as well as Taiwan, would face big opportunities if we, Europeans,
managed to improve our relationship with this important democratic market
economy in East Asia. The European Commission should soon make a serious effort
to gain additional welfare through an improved partnership with Taiwan,ˇ¨ Caspary
was quoted as saying in the statement.
The press release added that Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang
(±ç°ę·s) told the hearing that ˇ§it seems quite natural that the EU and Taiwan
should seriously look at the way to substantially improve our bilateral trade
relations.ˇ¨
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