Chen Chien-jen (程建人), Taipei's de facto ambassador to Washington, said yesterday that he will brief the US International Trade Committee Monday at a hearing on the possibility of establishing a Taiwan-US free-trade agreement, said a Central News Agency report.
Chen, who will attempt to persuade US legislators of the benefits of signing a trade deal with Taiwan, said the committee would not make a final decision immediately after the hearing, according to the report.
The US Trade Representative (USTR) will also review the case before a decision can be made on whether to launch trade negotiations -- expected later this year.
Taipei has long desired to sign a free-trade agreement with Washington in order to maintain its market share in the US. With Taiwan's economy so dependent on its economic ties with the US, Taiwan is understandably nervous about losing its place as the US' eighth largest trading partner, the report said.
The Board of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Economic Affairs has identified the importance of a free-trade agreement with the US, and the ministry has started to aggressively lobby the US Congress and related industries in the hope that free-trade negotiations can be launched soon.
The US is Taiwan's biggest export market. Apart from signing NAFTA in 1994 along with Mexico and Canada, the US is pushing for an all-American free-trade zone by the year 2005 including 34 countries of the Americas -- excluding Cuba. The ministry is worried that such a zone would effectively exclude Taiwanese exporters.
The free-trade agreement would expand upon commitments made under the WTO to open markets, lower tariff and non-tariff trade restrictions and increase Taiwan's international competitiveness by further developing its high-tech industry, according to the board.
While receiving US Undersecretary of Commerce for International Trade Grant Aldonas last month, President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen has suggested that Taiwan, the US and Japan forge a regional free-trade alliance to ensure the three's joint interests as well as to prevent investment from being attracted to China.
But Aldonas deflected the idea of a trilateral pact, saying Taiwan had enough ground to cover in simply meeting its commitments under the WTO.
Taiwan is still causing the US concern in areas related to the WTO Agreement on the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS), agricultural tariffs and the validation of pharmaceutical products, Aldonas 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.
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