The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it has not been told by the US that Taiwan may become a member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) by the end of next year as a Japanese newspaper reported, Minister of Foreign Affairs David Lin (林永樂) said yesterday.
The Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun quoted an unnamed White House official as saying on Monday that Taiwan may join the TPP by then at the earliest.
The Nikkei said the US and Taiwan have quietly discussed having Taipei join the TPP during bilateral talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) platform since both side resumed negotiations last year.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
US President Barack Obama’s administration is stepping up overtures to Taiwan on joining the TPP as part of efforts to keep China in check, the newspaper said.
Asked to comment on the report, Lin said Taiwan was grateful for the support extended to it in its pursuit of TPP membership, but the ministry had not received any explicit information from the US as to its stance on Taiwan’s bid for membership.
In terms of economic relations with the US, the first and foremost task is to continue to negotiate on issues of concerns to both side under the TIFA platform, such as a bilateral investment agreement, “to create the conditions needed for Taiwan to join the TPP,” Lin said.
In related news, a two-day workshop held to brainstorm strategies to facilitate the nation’s entry into the TPP and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) concluded yesterday.
At a post-meeting press conference, Representative to Thailand Henry Chen (陳銘政) said that he felt wholeheartedly that the government was determined to gear up for liberalization.
Thailand is one of several ASEAN countries with which Taiwan wants to open negotiations with on bilateral economic cooperation agreement, to pave the way for its inclusion into the RCEP. Thailand is already a member of the group.
A feasibility study on such an agreement with Thailand is expected to be finished at the end of next month, after about a year of research, Chen said.
Chen said that the discussions he had with officials at the workshop were helpful in addressing trade issues of concerns to Thailand, such as the ban on imports of purple mangosteen from Thailand.
Taiwan and Thailand are expected to begin negotiations on a bilateral investment agreement this year, part of a building block approach to push for a bilateral economic cooperation pact, he said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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