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 Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
THE GOOD WORD: More than 100 colleges on both sides of the Pacific will work together to bring students to Taiwan so they can learn Mandarin where it is spoken A total of 102 universities from Taiwan and the US are collaborating in a push to promote Taiwan as the first-choice place to learn Mandarin, with seven Mandarin learning centers stood up in the US to train and support teachers, the Foundation for International Cooperation in Higher Education of Taiwan (FICHET) said. At the annual convention of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages held over the weekend in New Orleans, Louisiana, a Taiwan Pavilion was jointly run by 17 representative teams from the FICHET, the Overseas Community Affairs Council, the Steering Committee for the Test of Proficiency-Huayu, the
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
RSS