Local firms favor RTAs, survey finds

Most domestic firms think that Taiwan should sign regional trade agreements (RTAs) with the US and Japan, while around 30 percent of them have no idea what an RTA is, according to the results of a recent poll.

The results of the survey conducted by the Chinese National Federation of Industries (CNFI, 全國工總) show that 63 percent of Taiwan-based businesses have an understanding of an RTA's functions and 33.7 percent of them think that Taiwan should ink such pacts, first with the US and Japan, then later with Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.

About 91 percent of the bus-inesses polled hailed the government's keen efforts to forge RTAs with other countries in recent years, with just a small percentage of them voicing worries that their businesses might be affected by further opening of the domestic market.

In addition, 84.9 percent of the firms surveyed believe that RTAs would boost their businesses.

Most of the Taiwan businesses favoring signing an RTA with the US have frequent business relations with the US, such as steel makers, textile firms and other export-oriented firms. Tea producers and toy makers also contend that a Taiwan-US RTA would help sharpen their competitiveness in the US market due to tariff reductions and increased quota amounts, according to the poll.

Meanwhile, 15.1 percent, most of them in local consumption sectors such as the cement industry, do not think that RTAs would help improve their businesses.

On the contrary, some of them said they feel RTAs would result in a damaging impact on their businesses.

The CNFI said it carried out the survey of its member companies to better understand the response of Taiwan-based businesses amid an increasing call for RTAs across the globe.

Asian-Pacific countries, including Australia, Japan, mainland China, New Zealand, South Korea and member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are keen on promoting such accords, it noted.