The recently signed cross-strait trade pact could boost the chances of a Taiwan-EU free-trade agreement (FTA), but the proposal would have to first move past the drawing board, an economic expert said on the sidelines of an international conference on China’s rise in Taipei yesterday.
“It will give a stronger political logic for the EU to sign an FTA with Taiwan,” said Razeen Sally, a director at the European Centre of International Political Economy (ECIPE), a Brussels-based research group.
“Simply signing an FTA with Taiwan by [itself] would not work for the EU, because Taiwan is too small of an economy and it will hardly make any difference to the EU,” he said. “Of course, it might risk upsetting Beijing in the process.”
The government signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China late last month, saying that it hoped other trading partners would follow suit and sign FTAs with Taiwan in the face of improving cross-strait ties.
However, recent comments by Chinese officials on the issue have sent mixed signals on whether Beijing would relax its staunch opposition to Taiwan engaging in trade talks with other countries.
Late last month, Taiwan Affairs Office director Wang Yi (王毅) reportedly said that China could understand Taiwan’s need to sign FTAs with other countries on the basis of economic expansion.
However, a few weeks earlier, Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭), a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, told a press conference that China would continue to stand against Taiwanese efforts to develop any type of official economic agreement along with other countries.
“Taiwan wants FTAs with other trading partners — [but] it isn’t going to happen without a Chinese green light ... The ECFA is this green light, and in this sense perhaps ECFA and other FTAs are linked,” Sally said.
However, he said that for the moment, a Taiwan-EU trade deal was “not even on the radar screen.”
The EU needed to be satisfied on two fronts before it would consider signing an FTA with Taiwan, he said.
“Firstly that it won’t upset Beijing — this is where the ECFA comes into play. Second is that the ECFA will become a foundation for Taiwan to be more integrated into the greater China supply chain,” Sally said. “Then there might be a stronger commercial reason to sign an FTA with Taiwan.”
Following the ECFA, Taiwan could be used as a hub for high-value trade and investment for both the Chinese market and the wider East Asian market, he said, adding that this would give EU businesses more incentive to set up in Taiwan.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
RSS