Taiwan is expected to become a full member of the WTO in January 2002, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) said yesterday.
"If the WTO passes our membership application at its ministerial meeting in November, Taiwan will be able to formally sign its accession protocol after the Legislative Yuan approves all relevant bills," Chen said, adding that as it is more convenient to implement the various commitments Taiwan has made for its WTO entry at the beginning of a new year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs hopes that Taiwan can become a WTO member next January.
Chen made the remarks during a meeting with members of the legislative caucus of the opposition New Party to solicit their support for the 14 WTO-related legislative bills.
Taiwan has already finalized all necessary trade concession talks with its major trading partners. As nearly all WTO members support simultaneous entry of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan is still waiting for China to complete its membership application procedures.
According to Chen, 35 WTO members have asked for bilateral negotiations with China.In addition, Chen said, China is expected to soon resolve certain remaining issues regarding the opening of its insurance market.
Against this backdrop, Chen said he is convinced that the WTO will give the green light to Taiwan's and China's membership applications at its November meeting.
Chen further said he is hopeful that legislators of different political stripes can together pass all the 14 WTO-related bills during its new session, scheduled to begin in the middle of this month.
During Tuesday's meeting, some New Party legislators asked Chen whether Taiwan would employ the WTO's "exclusion provision" to deal with its post-WTO accession trade and economic ties with China.
In response, Chen said that if Taiwan refrains from employing the "exclusion provision" toward China, this will facilitate Taiwan's economic globalization.
"Nevertheless, the island's agricultural sector may be affected," Chen said, adding that the government has already done its utmost to minimize the possible adverse impact on the farming sector in the WTO negotiation process, including scaling down the scale of market opening, adopting special defensive measures for certain sensitive agricultural products and granting grace periods for market opening.
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