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China sidelines Taiwan at WTO, representative says

Taiwan enjoys an equal status, including most-favored nation and national treatment, with all 146 other members of the WTO except for China, Yen Ching-chang (顏慶章), the nation's permanent representative to the global trade body, said in a speech yesterday.

"Despite an improving atmosphere, a proper negotiation mechanism under the WTO framework hasn't yet been established between Taiwan and China," Yen said.

Addressing over 180 delegates from the local financial and securities sector at the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp (TAIEX, 證交所), Yen said the cross-strait trade relationship is still abnormal and imbalanced, as China refuses to launch bilateral talks with the nation's Geneva-based delegation.

China is the only WTO member that hasn't granted Taiwan most-favored nation status and national treatment, which prevents Taiwan from returning the same treatment.

Thanks to China's boycott, Taiwan's application to join the trade body was delayed until 2002, which fortunately gave local industries a period of grace to adjust themselves to deal with any negative impact, Yen said.

"Taiwan's entry into the WTO had a less-than-expected impact on the nation's non-agricultural industries," he said.

Yen said that Taiwan's joining the WTO played an important role to introduce foreign competition to accelerate the economy's liberation and internationalization, while providing an effective dispute-solving mechanism of which Taiwan could take advantage.

To reinforce the nation's role in the WTO, Yen yesterday vowed to rally support from new WTO members while making efforts to ink free-trade agreements (FTAs) and regional-trade agreements (RTAs) with as many WTO members as possible.

Yen, a former finance minister, assumed the post in February, 2002 and recently returned to Taipei to attend to administrative matters.

In yesterday's speech, he expressed concern that some domestic pro-China opinion leaders have been advocating closer links with China by sacrificing Taiwan's benefits, which is detrimental to both local economic development and the nation's diplomatic efforts in breaking international isolation.

Yen also refuted an argument that Taiwan's economic importance will be replaced by Hong Kong following implementation of the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement between China and the former British colony.
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