Taiwan has entered into initial discussions with the US regarding the signing of a free trade agreement that the government hopes will maintain market share for products in one of the world's most valuable market.
In a written statement, the Board of Foreign Trade said it wanted to prevent Taiwan-made products from being marginalized in the US market.
The board identified concerns that apart from signing the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 between Mexico and Canada, the US is hoping to establish an all-American free trade zone by 2005 including 34 countries of the Americas -- excluding Cuba.
The US-Taiwan agreement would seek to expand upon commitments made to open markets, lower tariff and non-tariff trade restrictions and increase its international competitiveness by further developing its high-tech industry, the statement said.
The announcement comes after the US International Trade Commission initiated the study after receiving a request from the Senate Committee on Finance on Jan. 17.
In that request, the committee said that a trend was emerging among major trading nations that favored their own industries and excluded those of the US.
"These arrangements ... can undermine US efforts to expand trade and, in some cases, US interests," the committee said in a letter to the commission.
Taiwan's nervousness about slipping down from its place as the US' 8th largest trading partner is further compounded by fears of over-reliance on the Chinese market. These goals reflect statements made by President Chen Shui-bian (
China replaced the US as Taiwan's top export market in November, the board said in March.
However, Aldonas shot down the idea of a trilateral pact, saying that meeting commitments under the WTO agreement would be sufficient.
"It's sort of a practical first things first approach. [Taiwan is] still somewhere short of compliance with WTO and as with all our trading partners that forms the platform for your trading relationship," Aldonas said.
Areas in which Taiwan is still causing the US concern are compliance with the WTO Agreement on the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), agricultural tariffs and the validation of pharmaceutical products, he said.
"The focus I think in the initial stage really has to be on how we're doing in terms of implementation of the WTO agreement. At this point we have to get through these first steps," he said.
Aldonas then tried to deflect the idea saying that what Chen had in fact meant was something else.
"What I understood President Chen to be saying was part of a broader vision for what needs to happen regionally and reflecting an interest and a concern about getting things going economically and coming out of last year's recession -- that was very much on his mind. Certainly, in terms of Japan, we're all very interested in trying to engage in a ways that would move the ball forward in terms of economic reforms," he said.
RSS