Taiwan must step up negotiations with its major trading partners on the signing of free-trade agreements and improve its global resourcing operations to protect itself from being marginalized, a former Cabinet member said yesterday.
Former chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development Chen Po-chih (陳博志) said China is likely to marginalize and "hollow out" Taiwan by blocking the nation's participation in international cooperative programs and by using unfair policy measures to lure Taiwan's capital and other resources.
In the face of these challenges, Taiwan should strengthen cooperation with other countries and better use the WTO to cope with China's unfair competition strategies, Chen said.
As to whether Taiwan is likely to become completely isolated from the world market, Chen said he doesn't foresee such a scenario.
"For one thing, China still relies on Taiwan for many economic activities," said Chen, now a National Taiwan University economics professor.
Chen, who also chairs the Taiwan Thinktank, a research institute organized by close aides to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), added that even though China intends to take advantage of its free-trade framework agreement with ASEAN, Southeast Asian countries are not expected to reject cooperation with Taipei so long as Taiwan manages to maintain its economic strength.
Noting that China accounts for one-seventh of global production at most, Chen said Taiwan still has niches in the global market.
Moreover, Taiwan outpaces many other countries in terms of the ratio of its investment in China to its gross domestic product and the ratio of its China-bound shipments to its total exports, he said.
"Against this backdrop, China itself would suffer if it restricted trade and economic exchanges across the Taiwan Strait," he said.
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