FTA push moves into high gear

Japan, despite repeated calls by top-ranking officials, including President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), has not been enthusiastic about signing an FTA with Taiwan, a MOFA official familiar with the negotiations said.

"We depend on Japan more than it depends on us. Besides, after Japan and Taiwan both became members of the WTO, tariffs between both sides have been lowered," the official said.

"What's more, Japan has to pay a huge political cost in signing an FTA with Taiwan. An FTA with Japan is unlikely to be achieved shortly, but it is still probable in the future," the official added.

The official, nonetheless, said he is not too pessimistic, despite the tremendous difficulties in signing FTAs. For example, the ASEAN-China FTA is not necessarily beneficial for ASEAN members, the official added.

Yen Ching-chang (顏慶章), the country's top representative to the WTO, has repeatedly questioned the necessity of Taiwan rushing to sign FTAs, suggesting that the WTO itself can provide sufficient space for bilateral or multilateral trade talks.

Multilateral trade pacts under global trade bodies, if achievable, may help ease Taiwan's predicament of being largely excluded from the global trend of signing FTAs, according to Ho Chen-sheng (何振生), a TIER researcher.

In a paper presented at the APEC Study Center's Consortium Meeting in Chile in May, Ho said one of the challenges the body faces is that FTAs have proliferated in the APEC region.

The phenomenon "could indicate that APEC members are not satisfied with the current pace of trade liberalization and economic cooperation," Ho said in his paper discussing the possibility of an APEC FTA.

"If an APEC FTA becomes a reality, trade liberalization would certainly reach a higher level than what can be reached at present with the WTO's multilateral trade liberalization," the researcher said.