Government launches think tank for trade issues

Taiwan has launched its World Trade Organization (WTO) Center under the auspices of the Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中經院), with the hope that the center will function as the government's brain trust to cope with a wide range of WTO issues and negotiations.

"It's necessary to establish a think tank to look into the increasingly wide and complicated WTO issues after Taiwan gained membership last year," President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said at yesterday's opening ceremony.

"I believe the inauguration of the center will help the government to act in the best interests of Taiwan under the WTO structure," Chen said.

Currently, the center comprises about 20 staff from CIER with initial capital of NT$60 million, said Daniel Liu (劉大年), deputy director of the WTO Center.

The center is expected to recruit more researchers, legal experts and industrialists to provide comprehensive insight into how Taiwan should adjust and cushion the impact on the economy following the liberalization of various markets and tax cuts, Liu said.

The center is also designed to cultivate the nation's own WTO specialists and foreign trade negotiators. To achieve this goal, Liu said the center is expected to set up a WTO academy by January 2005.

If the proposed academy runs well, Liu said he hopes to introduce WTO-related courses into the curricula at the nation's colleges and universities.

Besides serving as a research and training institution, the center will start to run a WTO online database in November.

Chinese and English versions of the database will provide the background and up-to-date information on WTO negotiations and conclusions.