President Chen Shui-bian (
"Economic security is a crucial factor in national security and regional security," Chen told a senior US business affairs official at the Presidential Office yesterday. "And the FTA can ensure that the three countries maintain their common interests."
Chen made the remarks while receiving US Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Grant Aldonas, stressing that the economic cooperation mechanism would also sustain security in the Asia-Pacific region.
The president said that signing a free-trade pact would help the three countries reduce capital flows to China, which acts like a "magnet" to investors.
His guest echoed Chen's suggestion, saying that Taiwan, as a model of economic development and democratic achievement to the world's developing countries, should play a more aggressive role in the WTO.
At a luncheon yesterday, Aldonas appealed to Taiwan to ensure that it complies with its WTO commitments and works in partnership with America during the new trade round.
"Now that Taiwan has achieved WTO membership, it must be vigilant about complying with its new obligations and I would like to count on Taiwan to set a good example within the WTO," said Aldonas, who arrived from China on a two-day visit.
"Both the president and [US commerce] secretary [Donald] Evans sent me with the admonition that the key issue in our trade relationship is going to be compliance with the WTO ... going forward in a new round of negotiations," Aldonas said.
Aldonas said that in meetings with Taiwanese officials, including Chen, he would stress specific concerns about compliance in pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, standards and distilled spirits.
Aldonas also said that parts of the US agricultural sector had raised questions regarding Taiwan's compliance with tariffs and quotas. He said concerns had also been raised about whether Taiwan would live up to its WTO responsibilities regarding Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS).
Long an area of concern for the US is Taiwan's effort to ensure the protection of intellectual property rights, which the US is currently evaluating, Aldonas said.
In a matter of weeks, the US is due to release its annual "special 301" watch list of countries identified as serious violators of intellectual property.
Aldonas gave no hint as to whether Taiwan would again be on that list. Areas in which the US will be seeking Taiwan's support include the expansion of membership and the reach of the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) that stipulates a reduction of tariffs on information technology products. He said that extra effort was needed on including developing countries in further liberalizing high-tech trade and seeking commitments for greater market access.
"I expect that Taiwan's interest, parallel to ours, is in expanding the membership in the ITA -- and frankly, the way these negotiations go, in the context of the WTO, it won't surprise me that anything the US suggests is greeted with suspicion that there's some ulterior motive," Aldonas said.
"Often times, [it is] better to have other advocates for our positions. I happen to think Taiwan could be an enormously effective advocate and play a very constructive role in trying to expand the reach of the ITA and other parts of the agenda," he added.
RSS