Taiwan should prioritize entering the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), as it could be isolated from two major regional trade blocs if China joins it first, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) said in a report published earlier this year.
As China controls the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), it would be virtually impossible for Taiwan to join it, the Taipei-based think tank said in a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council on the effects of regional integration, a US-China trade dispute and COVID-19 on the government’s New Southbound Policy.
With 15 member nations — China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the 10 ASEAN members — the RCEP is the largest trade bloc in the world, despite India opting out of the agreement in 2019 citing concerns about over-reliance on China.
Hong Kong has also voiced its desire to join the bloc formed last year to serve as a gateway between ASEAN and China, a proposal that received enthusiastic support from Beijing at last week’s virtual Belt and Road summit.
China at last year’s APEC leaders’ meeting also voiced its intention to join the main rival to the RCEP, the CPTPP, which was formed under Japanese direction in 2018 after the US withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
If China succeeds in joining the 11-member trade agreement, it would “not be good news” for Taiwan, CIER said in its report, recommending that the government seek to join the bloc as soon as possible to avoid “future variables” that could hinder its acceptance.
Both blocs are likely to add new members, potentially harming the nation’s export competitiveness and especially its ties formed through the New Southbound Policy if it cannot join at least one of them, it said.
Regional economic integration through bilateral trade agreements has long affected Taiwan’s exports, and the situation would continue to worsen if Taiwan cannot better integrate with the region, the report said.
The smaller scope of tariff reductions and the longer grace period to lower them under the RCEP as opposed to the CPTPP mean that short-term effects on the nation’s exports would be limited, but it could erode its competitiveness in the medium and long term, it said.
After the start of the US-China trade dispute, many repatriating Taiwanese businesses complained about the nation’s weak export competitiveness in the absence of free-trade agreements, it said.
Besides joining the CPTPP as soon as possible, which most experts agree affords the greatest opportunities to Taiwan, the think tank also recommended negotiating bilateral agreements, particularly the much-anticipated Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with the US whose negotiations restarted in June after a five-year hiatus.
However, including Taiwan in multilateral talks rather than pursuing bilateral agreements is more attractive for individual governments, as it is less likely to incense Beijing, it said, adding that joining the CPTPP could be a breakthrough for Taiwan’s trade ties with nations covered by the New Southbound Policy.
SCANDAL: There are still discussions over whether a ban from being coaches, referees or agents should be imposed on the players, the association said The Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA), Taiwan’s basketball governing body, on Tuesday said that it has handed lifetime bans to 10 players accused of game-fixing and breaches of betting rules. In a statement on Tuesday, the CTBA said it has revoked the registration of nine former players from the semi-professional Super Basketball League’s (SBL) Yulon Lexgen Dinos and one from the Taiwan Beer Leopards of the professional T1 League. The nine former Dinos players are Ko Min-hao (柯旻豪), Chiu Chung-po (邱忠博), Chen Pin-chuan (陳品銓), Huang Hsuan-min (黃鉉閔), Wu Yu-jen (吳祐任), Chou Wei-chen (周暐宸), Yen Wen-tso (顏聞佐), Lee Chi-en (李其恩), and Senegalese center
It took director Chong Keat Aun (張吉安) nearly a decade to complete Snow in Midsummer (五月雪), a deft chronicle of Malaysia’s May 13 incident told through one woman’s search for her brother and father. Although only his second feature, it led the field at yesterday’s Golden Horse Awards with nine nominations. Chong said it had been a struggle to get people to share their memories of the intercommunal violence following the 1969 national election, known among the country’s ethnic Chinese community as “513.” “My father, for example, would shut the conversation down if my mother or grandma even mentioned the topic,” Chong said
A new poll of Taiwanese voters found the top opposition candidate for president jumping past the ruling party’s hopeful into the lead position ahead of January’s election — the latest twist in a drama-filled race. Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) had an approval rating of 31.9 percent versus 29.2 percent for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed. The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), ranked third with 23.6 percent, according to the survey conducted
NOT TOO LATE: Hou urged Ko to ‘think things over,’ adding that there were still 48 hours to change his mind, as the TPP picked up registration forms in Taipei Focusing on polling disputes between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) is not conducive toward collaboration, the campaign office manager of the TPP’s presidential candidate, Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), said yesterday. Vivian Huang’s (黃珊珊) comments came after New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the KMT’s presidential candidate, on Tuesday called for both sides to return to the table for further talks about forming a joint ticket for the election on Jan. 13. Hou had suggested that the parties each pick two experts to re-evaluate the polling results to determine who was favored to lead the ticket, and
RSS