WTO entry should boost negotiations for free-trade pacts

Taiwan's entry to the WTO will accelerate talks on free-trade agreements with other WTO members, the Board of Foreign Trade said yesterday.

BOFT Director General Wu Wen-yea (吳文雅) said that Singapore, New Zealand, Japan and the US were all possible candidates for such negotiations, adding that New Zealand had been most active.

Wu said that New Zealand's agricultural sector had a competitive edge over Taiwan's, and that Taiwan would have to take this into consideration when negotiating a free-trade agreement with the country.

Singapore, on the other hand, does not have a major agriculture sector and would make an ideal free-trade partner for Taiwan, Wu said.

BOFT officials said the board had set up a task force to promote free-trade agreements with other nations.

They say that such agreements will help eliminate trade barriers for Taiwan's products and services and thus facilitate the global expansion of Taiwan's businesses.

Such agreements will also help offset any discrimination or negative impacts on Taiwan from free-trade agreements signed among other countries, the officials said.

They said Taiwan's future development, as well as world trends, would be the major considerations in negotiations.

The officials also said they hoped they could strike deals to promote foreign investment in Taiwan and the use of the nation as a logistics and planning center as well as a center for production, operations, and research and development.

Taiwan will officially join the WTO in January next year.