Taiwan’s economy, with a successful application to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), stands to grow by 2 percent, National Development Council Minister Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday.
The nation has applied to the Japan-led trade bloc under the name “Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu,” Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
“It’s the least controversial name and the same one under which we joined the WTO,” said Deng, who also serves as head of the Cabinet’s Office of Trade Negotiations.
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
The 11-member trade bloc recommended that Taiwan rush its application after China also applied for membership on Thursday last week.
“We have chosen to apply in our own time, but of course there was the worry that it would be more difficult if China gained entry first,” Deng said.
However, Deng said he believes that the CPTPP member states review applications on a case-by-case basis and based on whether an applicant meets the bloc’s standards.
Taiwan applied on Wednesday via its representative in New Zealand, who sent the accession form to the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
New Zealand acts as the legal depositary for the bloc, and is responsible for circulating the application among its member states.
Taiwan would next begin accession talks with all 11 CPTPP members, seeking their support and learning about which issues each member state is most concerned, Deng said, adding that he could not estimate how long it might take for Taiwan to join the trade bloc, given the uncertainties of the accession process.
While tech products are mostly tariff-free under WTO rules, traditional industry could benefit from Taiwan joining the pact, while agriculture would suffer, Kung said.
“We can expect a gain of about 2 percent to our GDP if we join the CPTPP, and a negative impact of 0.56 percent if we don’t,” he said.
Kung’s modeling assumes that the UK, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines would eventually join the trade bloc, even if Taiwan does not.
Not every industry would benefit, but traditional industries such as petroleum, plastics, metals, chemicals and services would face greater trade barriers if the nation is not part of the bloc, he said.
“Our models show that CPTPP membership would hit agriculture, and the automotive and auto parts sectors the hardest,” Kung said.
Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Chi-chung (陳吉仲) said that while tariff protection for agricultural products would drop, there would be a buffer period, while some products would remain protected.
“Looking at the examples of Japan and Vietnam, we see the drop in tariffs phased in over 16 to 21 years,” Chen said. “Vietnam and Japan retain 3 percent and 2.8 percent tariffs respectively on products, mostly agriculture, that are not zero-tariff.”
Tokyo has responded favorably to Taiwan’s CPTPP announcement, with Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Toshimitsu Motegi telling reporters in New York City yesterday that “Japan welcomes Taiwan’s application to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership.”
Separately yesterday, China said that it opposed Taiwan joining the trade bloc.
“We firmly oppose any country having official exchanges with Taiwan and firmly oppose the Taiwan region’s accession to any official treaties or organizations,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Zhao Lijian (趙立堅) told reporters.
The trade bloc’s signatories are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
Additional reporting by AFP and CNA
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so
RSS