Relations between Taiwan and China in the WTO must be normalized before cross-strait trade relations can be rationalized, Taiwan's permanent representative to the WTO Yen Ching-chang (
Yen made the remarks in response to a position paper released by the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei (ECCT) on Taiwan's progress in observing WTO obligations.
In the paper, the ECCT again criticized Taiwan for failing to relax import restrictions on Chinese products and warned that the situation will bring down the nation's competitiveness.
The ECCT highlighted that Taiwan has banned the import of more than 2,400 Chinese products on the grounds that they might jeopardize national security and the domestic industrial sector, which the group says is in violation of 1994's General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.
Yen said the problem is mutual and that it is unfair to demand that Taiwan take steps unilaterally.
While there is room for Taiwan to improve its import restrictions on Chinese products, China has also maintained unreasonable trade measures toward Taiwan, Yen said.
However, it seems impossible for Taiwan and China to sit down for talks about the problem because their relations in the WTO have not been normalized, with China's mission to the WTO even refusing to exchange correspondence with Taiwan's mission, Yen said.
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