The heads of the Taiwanese and Japanese delegations to the 30th East Asia Economic Conference yesterday issued a joint statement urging a Taiwan-Japanese free-trade agreement (FTA).
"First, since Taiwan and Japan are important trade partners of each other, a Taiwan-Japanese FTA can serve not only to strengthen and deepen the economic links between Taiwan and Japan, but can also serve to accelerate economic exchanges in the East Asian area," the statement issued yesterday said.
"Second, in order to help smooth economic interactions between Taiwan and Japan and remove tariff and non-tariff barriers, a potential FTA signed by the two sides should be a comprehensive accord on economic cooperation, covering liberalization of investment, mutual recognition on areas such as verification and intellectual property," it said.
"Third, the conference will widen its participation to include experts of economics and industry to study the feasibility of signing a Taiwan-Japanese FTA," the statement concluded.
However, Akio Kasai, the leader of the Japanese delegation, told a press conference yesterday that the time is not right for the Japanese government to get involved in negotiating a FTA.
Jeffrey Koo (辜濂松), head of the Taiwanese delegation, said that if an FTA was not established, Taiwan's membership in the WTO would lose its meaning.
Kasai, the vice president of the Japanese Federation of Economic Associations, said FTAs involve many complicated elements that will need further study and discussion.
Japan and South Korea, for instance, spent five years on research before a Japan-Korean FTA was signed, he said.
The 30th East Asia Economic Conference opened in Tokyo yesterday, with more than 100 senior business and industry executives from the two nations participating.
The annual conference focused on evaluation reports presented by private economic think tanks on the signing of a Taiwan-Japanese FTA.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Kasai recalled that the first East Asia Economic Conference took place in Taipei in 1973, shortly after the two countries severed official diplomatic ties.
Over the past three decades, Kasai said, the annual event has played an important role in the promotion of bilateral trade and economic exchanges.
"I hope that the current meeting can come up with a detailed package of recommendations for the proposed Taiwan-Japan free trade agreement," Kasai said, adding that the recommendations will be referred to the two governments to serve as a reference for their future negotiations.
Koo said trade and economic cooperation among East Asian countries have become ever closer amid the trends of regional integration and economic globalization.
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