Speeding up the pace of regional economic integration is key to Taiwan’s economy remaining competitive, and ratifying the service trade agreement with China is a case in point, Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) said yesterday.
Jiang made the comments as he and other ministers hiked up the 1,120m Chihsing Mountain (七星山) in the morning.
Asked how Taiwan would cope with the imminent signing of a bilateral free-trade agreement (FTA) between China and South Korea by the end of the year, the premier said the agreement could be a serious challenge to Taiwan’s economic development.
Photo: CNA
Since many of Taiwan’s industrial exports are similar to those of South Korea, once it secures a FTA or tariff reduction with countries to which Taiwan also exports, Taiwan’s main industrial exports would be affected, Jiang said.
He said that is why the government has hurried to accelerate the pace of regional integration, mainly focusing on follow-up agreements to the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) in 2010, Jiang said.
Jiang said that doing so was essential to maintaining Taiwan’s competitiveness and not being left behind by South Korea, and that this includes the legislature ratifying the service trade agreement.
A Ministry of Economic Affairs study indicates that a China-Korea FTA would threaten about one-quarter of Taiwan’s industrial exports to China, an estimated value of US$40 billion.
As South Korea’s FTA with China will also give it a leg up in Southeast Asian markets, whose importance to Taiwan is growing, it will pose a two-pronged threat to Taiwan’s foreign trade competitiveness in China and in Southeast Asia, Jiang said.
Speaking on his hike, Jiang said recreation and exercise is important for officials to remain relaxed and rejuvenated.
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