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WTO deal favors Taiwan, minister says

The agreement reached during the six-day WTO trade talks in Hong Kong will be conducive to Taiwan's economy and should only have a limited impact on the agricultural sector, Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) said yesterday.

She made the remarks during a press conference held yesterday afternoon after she returned from the sixth WTO ministerial meeting, where she had bilateral talks with 13 nations, including the US, France, other EU nations as well as Vietnam.

A breakthrough deal reached in the meeting states that wealthy countries will eliminate farm-export subsidies by 2013, which Ho said will not affect local farm produce because there are no such subsidies in Taiwan.

In contrast, by that time, farm imports shipped into Taiwan will be sold at higher prices because of the lack of subsidies, allowing Taiwan's agricultural products to enjoy equal competition.

On market access, member countries agreed to adopt four bands for structuring tariff cuts and recognized the need to agree on treatment of sensitive products, taking into account all the elements involved.

Developing-country members will have the flexibility to self-designate an appropriate number of tariff lines as "special products," guided by indicators based on the criteria of food security, livelihood security and rural development, according to the draft declaration.

Ho said in the next talks, she will argue that Taiwan belongs in the developing-country category and should be entitled to put sensitive products, such as rice, into the four bands for tariff cuts.

The meeting also concluded that all forms of export subsidies for cotton will be eliminated by developed countries next year and developed nations will give duty and quota-free access to cotton exports from least-developed countries.

This agreement will have no impact on Taiwan as no cotton is produced here.

In terms of non-agricultural products, ministers agreed to adopt the Swiss Formula to deal with tariff peaks, high tariffs and tariff escalation, which Ho said will boost Taiwan's exports.

She said Taiwan is interested in the approach of deciding taxes based on different sectors.

The government has proposed applying this measure to the bicycle sector, considering that Taiwan exports five million units a year, she said.

In a requirement that will help least-developed nations, developed countries must provide duty-free and quota-free market access for at least 97 percent of products origin-ating from these nations by 2008.

Ho said that the government will encourage local companies to look for favorable investment environments in least-developed nations, and that the ministry will work to negotiate on the introduction of more foreign laborers to help mitigate the possible impact of the opening-up policy.
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