Government plans over 8,000 tariff cuts for this month

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs will make further tariff concessions on more than 8,000 items by the end of this month to pave the way for its accession to the WTO.

An official with the ministry said yesterday that the new tariff cuts and the duration of their implementation will be sent to WTO members for confirmation.

As China had already completed its negotiations on WTO entry in Geneva on July 4, Taiwan is likely to become a WTO member along with China early next year.

Taiwan's Vice Economic Affairs Minister Chen Ruey-long (陳瑞隆) visited Geneva and Brussels last week to monitor the progress of China's WTO application and exchange views on Taiwan's entry plan with officials from the US and the EU.

Taiwan hopes that its entry application will be approved at the last meeting of the WTO's working group in Geneva in September so that it may gain the approval by the WTO ministerial meeting in November and by the WTO Council of Directors in January next year.

Taiwan has almost completed the required work for joining the global trading regulatory body, with only some minor technical issues to be resolved, such as the revision on the tariff cuts for the more than 8,000 items.

Regarding the signing of WTO government procurement agreements, Taiwan will conduct the final negotiations with Canada and South Korea.