Taipei will not accept `China' tag in WTO

Taipei will not accept entry into the WTO if it has to add "China" to its official title, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister David Lee (李?j維) said yesterday.

Speaking at a legislative committee hearing on Taiwan's WTO application, Lee said Taipei would not accept entry into the world trade body if "China" is added to the current "Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu separate customs territory" name on its 1990 application to join GATT, the WTO's predecesor.

"We applied as independent customs territory and no other name would be acceptable now," Lee said.

He said he is confident that Taiwan and China will be admitted into the WTO simultaneously as both the US and the EU have reached consensus on the accession issue.

Lee, who has maintained close relations with US officials, added that he is positive that Washington will not make any further compromises on the issue of in what sequence Taiwan and China should be admitted.

Yesterday's China Times reported that a foreign ministry document expressed concern that if Beijing enters the WTO before Taiwan does, Beijing could attempt to block its entry unless its application name is changed to "Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu, China."

The document reportedly cited a statement made at the APEC forum ministerial meeting in September by PRC Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan. "The Chinese government agrees with the entry of Taiwan as an independent customs area of China as China and other WTO members have already reached consensus and manifested in an official GATT statement in 1992," Tang said.

Such a change would put Taiwan on an equal footing with Hong Kong, whose WTO name was changed from "Hong Kong" to "Hong Kong, China" after the territory's absorption into China as a "special administrative region" in July 1997.

This concern has a historical precedent in the change of Taipei's membership name in the Asian Development Bank from the ROC to "Taipei, China" under pressure from Beijing in 1986.

Besides calling the China Times report "groundless," Lee expressed doubt that Beijing would raise such an issue.

"If Beijing tried to obstruct our entry into WTO by political means, they would bring considerable trouble on themselves," Lee said.