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Ministry develops trade negotiations legal team

Starting from scratch and developing to a nearly full-fledged legal team, the Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) at the Ministry of Economic Affairs has achieved in eight months something that has been requested, studied and discussed for years.

In an interview with CNA, John Deng (鄧振中), chief representative of the OTN, said yesterday that his team has already demonstrated its ability to fulfill the tasks of providing legal analysis and opinion.

In the very near future, the group will engage in legal disputes under the WTO framework, although it might not be able to independently conduct a complete international trade legal proceeding just yet, he said.

SPECIALIZED COUNSEL

Legal counsel could prove to be the weakest aspect of Taiwan’s public institutions. Unlike developed countries, almost none of the ministries in the central government have a competent and specialized legal office, except for the Ministry of Justice.

The problem surfaced in 2002 when Taiwan joined the WTO, in which dispute settlement is a central function.

Even with the urgent demand, the legal team of the OTN was not established until last August on an ad hoc basis with two legal experts on loan from the justice ministry.

Aiming at promoting ability in international trade disputes and negotiations, such as free-trade agreements (FTAs), the country’s first-ever international legal force has made impressive progress with limited resources, Deng said.

The team is led by a negotiator in charge of legal affairs and rules, along with six members — three middle-level officials and three legal assistants.

The backbone of the middle-level team are two prosecutors-turned-legal advisors, assigned with providing analyses and advising on rights and obligations under the multilateral trading system and international trade agreements, while helping solve trade disputes under such agreements.

Deng said the prosecutors’ legal and trial skills and expertise would ensure the quality of their work.

SUBMITTING CASES

Although Taiwan has not been in the position of plaintiff or defendant in any trade dispute as a WTO member state — partly because of a lack of legal capacity — the office is developing the team by submitting cases involving other countries as a third party.

To date, the team has accomplished five submissions in eight months, a massive jump against the seven submitted in the previous five years.

In addition to quantity, Deng said the quality of those submissions has been well-recognized.

Citing the difficulty of the tasks, Deng said that the team still needs to consult with WTO experts to fully capture the complexity of international trade disputes, which Taiwan has little experience with.

In the long run, the team could be refined as a central force for Taiwan to independently solve the legal problems arising from external trade, he said.

But the legal team faces an uncertain future as it is not a permanent unit, and Deng expressed hope that it could become a regular unit of the government.
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