Taiwan is not hostage to China's WTO bid and may still be able to conclude all procedures necessary for entering the world trade body by the end of the year, Taiwan's lead WTO negotiator said yesterday.
Lin Yi-fu (
"Even if China manages to conclude bilateral talks with the US soon, it does not mean that China will be formally admitted to the WTO immediately," Lin said.
"Taiwan is actually far ahead of China in its negotiations for WTO entry," he said. "We have finalized all bilateral talks with major WTO members, including the US as well as the EU."
He said that Taiwan may still be able to join the world trade body by the end of the year.
Most analysts believe that Taiwan's accession to the WTO is being held captive to China's own accession. Not everyone agrees, though.
"There are some circles discussing whether, in view of China's delays, Taiwan's earlier admission can be used to influence China to come to the table ... with serious discussions on their own issues," said Nicholas Chen (
Chen also pointed out that the EU and the US are not inclined to make special concessions for China to get in and they want China to meet the same rules applied to all other economies. Complex internal political battles within China also seem to be preventing it from reaching consensus domestically, thus holding it back from forging external agreements, he said.
The thorny issue of trade concessions remains a crucial problem to be tackled by both China and the US before a bilateral trade agreement can be reached, Chen Ruei-long (
He said that despite the enthusiastic efforts of President Clinton in pushing forward a trade agreement with China, the key issue is whether either side is willing to make concessions.
According to Chen, among these issues is a five-year extension of textile import quotas past the current expiry date of 2005. Agreements on agriculture and dumping prices have also yet to be reached.
Whether US trade negotiators will bow to pressure from Con-gress is also a sticking point.
As for Taiwan's entry, Chen said that with a new round of trade negotiations beginning next year, further opportunities will exist for Taiwan to have its accession case reviewed, if it fails to gain entry by the end of the year.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS