EU Representative to Taiwan Frederic Laplanche yesterday listed several “obstacles” to enhanced EU-Taiwan trade in the form of a free-trade agreement (FTA), but added that there is “plenty” to do without such a deal.
The obstacles ranged from the “lack of consciousness on both sides” of the importance of trade liberalization, existing trade barriers and political questions — the political will” to overcome resistance to trade liberalization and China’s attitude toward Taiwan’s regional economic integration, Laplanche said.
Laplanche delivered the opening remarks at a symposium on EU-Taiwan trade relations co-organized by the EU Research Centre at National Chengchi University and the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research.
Continuing with trade liberalization is important for the EU and Taiwan both individually and bilaterally, but public opinion is not necessarily in favor of further trade liberalization, Laplanche said.
He said trade is a way out of the European economic crisis that has existed since 2008, but which has actually brought about more across-the-board protectionism and protectionist measures.
“Trade policy is like cycling on a steep slope. If you stop pedaling, you are not just going to stop there. You are going to go backward,” he said, adding that the relationship needs to go forward with trade liberalization to regain some growth for the EU, he said.
Laplanche said that trade liberalization is also important for Taiwan because its economy is heavily dependent on exports for growth and “more than just exports, [it] also exports to final markets in the US and in the EU.”
The decoupling of growth in Asia with growth in Europe and the US has yet to take place, Laplanche said.
It is not enough for Taiwan to be exporting to China and Southeast Asia as final markets, he added.
Laplanche said Taiwan and the EU need further bilateral trade liberalization, but there are a few obstacles.
One of the obstacles is the “lack of consciousness on both sides,” he said.
“There is a form of reciprocal invisibility between the EU and Taiwan,” Laplanche added.
Despite the fact that the EU accounts for only 9 percent of Taiwan’s external trade, “how much of Taiwan’s intermediary goods exported to China or to Southeast Asia end up in Europe as a final market? Probably much more than that,” Laplanche said.
There exist some hurdles toward an FTA between Taiwan and the EU, including trade barriers, which must be resolved before the two sides could move further, Laplanche said without elaborating.
There are also political hurdles, he added.
“It needs political will to convince people, including here in Taiwan, and to make tough choices,” Laplanche said. “When you sign an FTA, you will take pressure from some of the vested interests for the sake of a bigger good, but some of the vested interests here will suffer from more trade liberalization. Do we have the political will to do this? That’s one of the questions.”
“The second political question is mainland [sic] China’s policy of trying to control the pace of Taiwan trade agreements with its trading partners. It’s also a very important and complicated question to deal with,” Laplanche said.
Laplanche said that there is plenty of work that both sides can do to further trade liberalization via a trade discussion framework, under which both sides cooperate in annual consultations and working group discussions.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS