Taiwan should make major adjustments to its economic structure now if it wants to gain access to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement in the next round of negotiations, a panel of US experts said on Thursday.
They urged Taipei to quickly resolve its bilateral disputes with Washington and lift restrictions on the import of US pork containing ractopamine residue.
Ractopamine is an additive used to induce leanness in animals. Taiwan banned the use of leanness-enhancing additives in meat products, but eased its ban on US beef imports with traces of ractopamine in July 2012 under pressure from the US.
The panel said that it was far from certain that the TPP would be approved by the US Congress this year, but seemed confident that is would eventually go into force.
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is a TPP supporter and leading Taiwanese business interests have said that it is “essential” for the health of the nation’s economy to join.
However, both of the likely nominees in the US presidential election campaign — Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Donald Trump and — want to renegotiate the agreement.
Twelve Pacific countries, including the US, have reached a provisional agreement on the TPP, but it still has to be ratified by each of their governing bodies. Once it goes into force, a second round of negotiations will be scheduled to consider other countries — including Taiwan — for membership.
The panel — Asia Society Policy Institute vice president Wendy Cutler, US Chamber of Commerce senior vice president for Asia Tami Overby and Atlantic Council senior fellow Olin Wethington — was organized by the Atlantic Council in Washington to discuss the future of trade in Taiwan.
Overby said that the inclusion of Taiwan in the TPP would raise trade efficiency in the region and add strength and scope to the agreement.
She said that Taiwan needed to address standards on foreign meat imports, including US pork.
Overby said Taiwan should create a Cabinet-level TPP task force to ensure individual ministries and agencies carried out the reforms needed and through which government leaders could issue clear directives and monitor progress.
Cutler, a former acting deputy US Trade Representative who negotiated the current TPP agreement, repeated that Taiwan should take action now to lay the groundwork domestically and internationally for future participation.
She said Taiwanese officials should study the text of the TPP agreement in detail and figure out how to meet its high standards.
Cutler also said it was important that “bilateral issues of concern” be resolved.
While she did not go into detail, it appeared that she was referring to the pork issue.
Cutler said that by resolving issues in advance, Taiwan would demonstrate its determination and its ability to make tough decisions.
She said that Taipei should launch a government-wide effort to build domestic support and develop an effective negotiating structure.
Taiwan should also build support in other TPP countries and consult bilaterally with those nations, she said.
Wethington said that Taiwan had punched well above its weight on the economic front and had outperformed expectations, becoming an essential part of the global supply chain.
He said that despite slower growth in recent years and major challenges ahead, Taiwan had made “striking achievements.”
Wethington said the US needed to advocate for deeper integration of Taiwan into regional and global institutions.
“It is in the American interest, as well as in the interest of our allies in Asia and in the interest of the global economy,” he said.
Wethington said that Taiwan should not wait until the TPP was in place, but should rather make a concerted, deliberate effort now to create a pathway toward greater structural adjustment.
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