Taiwan should focus on joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) instead of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), academics said yesterday.
Mignonne Chan (詹滿容), executive director of the Chinese Taipei Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Study Center, said at a forum on regional integration that if Taiwan joins negotiations under the RCEP, the potential economic benefits would be twice as great as those under the TPP.
The RCEP was first discussed at the 19th ASEAN Summit in November last year. A RCEP framework was set out between the 10 ASEAN member states that maps out the general principles for broadening and deepening ASEAN’s engagement with its free-trade agreement partners. ASEAN members’ free-trade partners include Australia, China, South Korea and Japan.
The RCEP market is estimated to have a combined population of more than 3 billion and a combined GDP of about US$19.9 trillion. The integrated market would be the largest in the world, said Lin Chien-fu (林建甫), professor of economics at National Taiwan University.
He said that the combined GDP, population and trade volume of the RCEP would be bigger than the TPP, even if Canada, Japan and Mexico all join the TPP in future.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA