AmCham backs cross-strait relaxation

The government should prioritize relaxation of cross-strait controls to help facilitate the nation's much-desired Taiwan-US free trade agreement (FTA), even though there is little chance of realization in the foreseeable future, the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (AmCham) said yesterday.

Taiwan should attend to various things that will make a bilateral trade pact more compelling, and on the top of the list is an improvement in the cross-strait environment, AmCham said in a report published in this month's issue of its Taiwan Business Topics magazine.

"US companies will have far more of a reason to participate in the Taiwanese economy if there are full trade, travel and investment connections to China," AmCham said.

With China's rapid development as both a production center and a consumer market, links to China must be now viewed as essential links to the world economy, the chamber added.

Taiwan has been promoting a Taiwan-US FTA for years and Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) is currently in the US seeking support for a trade pact.

But, the outlook does not look promising as the chamber said that: "Taiwan tends to be off the radarscope these days for most-high-level US officials," who are preoccupied with crises in areas like Iraq, Israel and North Korea, and the challenges and opportunities presented by China's rise.