President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is hoping to use this year’s APEC leaders’ summit as an opportunity to push Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Tsai told a news conference yesterday that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) founder Morris Chang (張忠謀) would again represent the nation at the summit to be held next month in New Zealand.
Tsai said she has asked Chang to seek backing for Taiwan’s entry into the 11-nation trade bloc.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan applied to join the CPTPP in September under the name “the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu” through its representative in New Zealand, who sent the accession form to the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
New Zealand acts as a depositary for the trade pact and is responsible for passing applications on to other member states.
The CPTPP was signed in March 2018 by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, and took effect at the end of that year, following ratification by more than half of the 11 signatories.
Tsai said that Taiwan’s entry into the CPTPP would help it forge closer industrial ties with the bloc’s members and enhance economic security in the region, adding that she hoped Chang would convey that message.
Chang said the president has asked him to let CPTPP members know that Taiwan is hoping to join the trade bloc so that it can work closely with other members and its working groups.
He also praised the CPTPP as having high standards, adding that Taiwan is already close to meeting them.
It would be the fifth time for Chang to attend an APEC forum as Tsai’s envoy. Although Taiwan is an APEC member, its presidents are prohibited from attending the leaders’ summit due to China’s opposition.
Next month’s meeting, to be held virtually, is to be this year’s second APEC summit after a closed-door meeting in July that addressed the COVID-19 pandemic and the issue of vaccine distribution, with Chang again representing Taiwan.
At next month’s summit, the leaders of the 21 APEC members are expected to focus on possible opportunities and challenges in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, and Chang would discuss Taiwan’s support for free trade, Tsai said.
Tsai said she hoped APEC would continue to maintain the spirit of free trade to accelerate the pace of global economic recovery.
Taiwan joined APEC as a full member under the name “Chinese Taipei” in 1991.
Chang first attended an APEC forum on behalf of Taiwan’s president in 2006, during the administration of then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Having built TSMC into the world’s largest contract chipmaker with a global market share of more than 50 percent, Chang retired in 2018 after more than three decades at the company’s helm.
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