Taiwan is aiming to be considered a second-round candidate for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and to accede to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in the next two years, Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) said yesterday.
Along the path to economic integration in the Asia-Pacific region, next year and 2015, when the US-initiated TPP and the China-led RCEP are expected to hammer out deals, will be crucial to Taiwan as the nation risks being marginalized if it is left out of the agreements, Kuan said.
“I have a strong sense of urgency” to avert the danger of Taiwan becoming marginalized, Kuan told reporters after the weekly Cabinet meeting at which he presented a revised version of the “free economic pilot zones” project.
Under the revised proposal, education has been added to the list of sectors to be showcased in the project, along with the initial targeted industries, which include smart logistics, international medical care, value-added agriculture, and wealth and asset management financial services.
The proposal states that domestic or foreign entities would be able to set up universities or colleges of an experimental nature without being subject to the current rules on enrollment, curriculum, management, recruitment and finance.
The revised proposal also expands the scope of international medical care by including international medical institutions, research and development centers focusing on bio-tech products, medicine, rehabilitation, health preservation and other services, in addition to health checks, cosmetic medicine and medical treatment.
In the logistics sector, the plan is to promote faster and freer flows of goods and to increase the number of value-added goods using top logistics services, enabled by an innovative customs administration and information clouds.
Agro-products from China which are currently restricted from being imported into the country would be allowed to be processed in the pilot zones, with Taiwanese agricultural technology being utilized to manufacture value-added products and to market them.
Offshore banking units and offshore securities units would be allowed to provide various kinds of financial products and services, which are not currently approved, to non-residents and domestic professional investors. The proposal also offers tax incentives to stimulate competition.
Foreign businesses which store or manufacture goods in the pilot zones would have their tariffs waived for all products sold abroad and by up to 10 percent on products sold in Taiwan.
Kuan said the proposal demonstrates the nation’s determination to open up its market to the world.
A strong case in point is to allow lawyers, accountants and architects from other countries, excluding China, to invest in local companies or to set up local branches with local partners in the pilot zones, he said.
The government currently does not prioritize joining the TPP over the RCEP or vice versa, Kuan said.
He said both the TPP and the RCEP are of importance to Taiwan, as trade with the 12 members of the TPP represents about 35 percent of the nation’s total trade, while trade with the 16 members of the RCEP accounts for more than 50 percent of the nation’s total trade.
If Taiwan can be considered a second-round candidate for the TPP after an initial deal is completed early next year, as the US expects, Taiwan could be able to join the TPP after two or three years of negotiations, earlier than the previous target of entry into the TPP by 2020, Kuan said.
The government has been seeking to be recognized as a dialogue partner to ASEAN to secure a better chance of joining the RCEP when an agreement is concluded in 2015, Kuan said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat