Taiwan should prioritize entering the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), as it could be isolated from two major regional trade blocs if China joins it first, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) said in a report published earlier this year.
As China controls the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), it would be virtually impossible for Taiwan to join it, the Taipei-based think tank said in a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council on the effects of regional integration, a US-China trade dispute and COVID-19 on the government’s New Southbound Policy.
With 15 member nations — China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the 10 ASEAN members — the RCEP is the largest trade bloc in the world, despite India opting out of the agreement in 2019 citing concerns about over-reliance on China.
Hong Kong has also voiced its desire to join the bloc formed last year to serve as a gateway between ASEAN and China, a proposal that received enthusiastic support from Beijing at last week’s virtual Belt and Road summit.
China at last year’s APEC leaders’ meeting also voiced its intention to join the main rival to the RCEP, the CPTPP, which was formed under Japanese direction in 2018 after the US withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
If China succeeds in joining the 11-member trade agreement, it would “not be good news” for Taiwan, CIER said in its report, recommending that the government seek to join the bloc as soon as possible to avoid “future variables” that could hinder its acceptance.
Both blocs are likely to add new members, potentially harming the nation’s export competitiveness and especially its ties formed through the New Southbound Policy if it cannot join at least one of them, it said.
Regional economic integration through bilateral trade agreements has long affected Taiwan’s exports, and the situation would continue to worsen if Taiwan cannot better integrate with the region, the report said.
The smaller scope of tariff reductions and the longer grace period to lower them under the RCEP as opposed to the CPTPP mean that short-term effects on the nation’s exports would be limited, but it could erode its competitiveness in the medium and long term, it said.
After the start of the US-China trade dispute, many repatriating Taiwanese businesses complained about the nation’s weak export competitiveness in the absence of free-trade agreements, it said.
Besides joining the CPTPP as soon as possible, which most experts agree affords the greatest opportunities to Taiwan, the think tank also recommended negotiating bilateral agreements, particularly the much-anticipated Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with the US whose negotiations restarted in June after a five-year hiatus.
However, including Taiwan in multilateral talks rather than pursuing bilateral agreements is more attractive for individual governments, as it is less likely to incense Beijing, it said, adding that joining the CPTPP could be a breakthrough for Taiwan’s trade ties with nations covered by the New Southbound Policy.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS