China may be blocking FTA efforts

Taiwan has hit roadblocks to negotiating free trade areas (FTA) with several countries because of obstruction from China, a local Chinese-language economic daily said yesterday.

Quoting an unnamed cabinet official, the daily said that Singapore and New Zealand have delayed FTA talks with Taiwan, while Malaysia, Thailand and Japan have said that they are no longer willing to discuss FTA with Taiwan.

"At the APEC economics ministers' meeting in Mexico last month, we submitted the plan for FTA talks with Singapore. Singapore said its priority was to negotiate FTA with the US, New Zealand, Australia, Chile and Mexico, so it had no time or officials to hold FTA talks with us," the official told the paper. "New Zealand has also put off FTA talks with us under the excuse that it needs cabinet approval."

Malaysia and Thailand have told Taiwan that they do not want to negotiate FTA with Taiwan.

"Taiwan and Japan agreed to hold a meeting on Dec. 9 to discuss FTA, but when Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) visited Japan last month, Japan said it wanted to discuss FTAs with Mexico, New Zealand and ASEAN first," the newspaper said.

Earlier this month Lin said Taiwan's efforts to bolster ties with countries in the region "have fallen behind schedule" because China has blocked Taiwan from joining regional organizations.

The unnamed official blamed China for keeping these countries from holding FTA talks with Taiwan. All these countries have diplomatic ties with China and officially regard Taiwan as China's breakaway province.

The cabinet official told the daily that the US is the only country that is able to stand up to China's pressure.

But the US accuses Taiwan of failing to fulfil the pledges Taipei made when it joined WTO on Jan. 1, so when Taiwan pushed the US to hold FTA talks, the US said that it had to negotiate FTAs with Latin America, South Africa and Singapore first, he said.

At the ASEAN summit on Nov. 4 in Phnom Penh, China signed a frame-work agreement with ASEAN members to launch FTA talks, hoping to set up the free-trade zone by 2010. That will be the world's largest free-trade zone, with 1.7 billion people and a combined GDP of US$2 trillion.

Taiwan expressed fears that with China-ASEAN FTA talks in motion, Taiwan could be marginalized and even isolated in regional trade.

The report said with the signing of the China-ASEAN FTA framework pact, China will play a leading role in economic integration in Asia and could even replace Taiwan as the main investor in ASEAN.

"China will expand its political influence in the region, and Taiwan will meet greater difficulties in signing FTA with Asian countries," the newspaper warned.