Taiwan would strive to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), as it would be challenging for the nation to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) given China’s dominance in the latter, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The RCEP was signed by 15 Asia-Pacific nations on the last day of the virtual ASEAN summit yesterday, becoming the world’s largest free-trade agreement.
The 15 nations are the 10 ASEAN members — Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam — and Australia, China, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.
Photo: Lu Yi-hsuen, Taipei Times
Taiwan would find it substantially difficult to join the RCEP, as it is led by China, the ministry said, adding that, as such, Taiwan’s main goal regarding regional economic integration is to push for participation in the CPTPP.
Taiwan would strive to initiate informal consultations, in preparation for joining the CPTPP, the ministry said, adding that it would continue to seek economic and trade cooperation opportunities with New Southbound Policy partner nations, the US, Japan and other like-minded nations.
Taiwan would make good use of the “US-Taiwan Framework to Strengthen Infrastructure Finance and Market Building Cooperation,” the ministry said, adding that the government would also support adding value to products and industrial transformation.
Separately yesterday, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government of not proactively trying to join the RCEP over the past four years, and declaring failure without even trying.
The trade volume between Taiwan and RCEP members accounts for about 59 percent of the nation’s total trade volume, and Taiwan’s investment in those nations accounts for 65 percent of its total foreign investment, so if Taipei cannot join the trade pact, the nation would suffer, the KMT said.
The DPP, trying only to please the US in the hopes of furthering economic and trade cooperation with Washington, neglected the development of the RCEP and the CPTPP, the KMT said, adding that the DPP’s failure in this regard could result in Taiwan being marginalized economically.
The party urged President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to call a high-level, cross-ministerial meeting to discuss how the RCEP would affect Taiwan and draw up solutions, saying that a report should be presented to the Legislative Yuan so that the public is not kept in the dark.
‘HARD DECISION’: The international medical society now only refers to Taiwanese groups as from ‘Chinese Taipei,’ after the WHO asked that it make the change Two Taiwanese medical groups have been forced to change the word “Taiwan” in their membership names for the International Society of Radiographers and Radiological Technologists (ISRRT) to “Chinese Taipei,” due to a request by the WHO. The two groups are the Taiwan Society of Radiological Technologists (TWSRT) and the Taiwan Association of Medical Radiation Technologists (TAMRT). On Dec. 23 last year, the TAMRT posted on Facebook screenshots of a letter it received from the ISRRT, informing it that the two groups’ membership names would be changed from “Taiwan - TWSRT” and “Taiwan - TAMRT” to “Chinese Taipei - TWSRT” and “Chinese Taipei
‘NO MORE’: Pompeo’s decision was not rushed before the change of administration, but was the result of a long review of Taiwan-US ties, a US assistant secretary said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday announced that the US Department of State is voiding long-standing restrictions on how US diplomats and others have contact with their counterparts in Taiwan, just a little over a week before US president-elect Joe Biden is sworn in. Pompeo instructed executive branch agencies to consider “all ‘contact guidelines’ regarding relations with Taiwan ... to be null and void.” “For several decades the State Department has created complex internal restrictions to regulate our diplomats, service members, and other officials’ interactions with their Taiwanese counterparts,” Pompeo said in a statement. “The United States government took these actions
CONTACTS TRACED: The doctor and his nurse girlfriend, who also tested positive, have only mild symptoms, but their cases have led to hundreds of people being tested The first case of a doctor contracting COVID-19 after treating an infected patient was one of two locally transmitted cases and two imported cases reported by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday. The second local case, No. 839, is the doctor’s girlfriend, a nurse who works at the same hospital. Case No. 838, a man in his 30s, is a doctor in a hospital in northern Taiwan that has been treating COVID-19 cases, said Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center. He was in a negative-pressure isolation ward where one of the confirmed patients was staying
DEPARTURE CEREMONY: Guam’s governor hailed the US’ move to end restrictions on contacts with Taiwanese officials, saying it would help the territory build ties with Taipei A humanitarian charter flight, carrying dozens of people who had either been stranded on Guam and Saipan amid border closures or were in need of medical treatment, arrived in Taiwan at 5:25pm yesterday. The flight, operated by China Airlines Ltd (中華航空), landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport with 47 passengers and 13 crew aboard. Five of the passengers had applied to local hospitals for treatment of tumors, heart arrhythmia or other conditions, and were approved by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, while four more are family members, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the spokesman
RSS