Taiwan will continue to solicit support from member countries to join a regional trade bloc even though the group last week decided not to initiate Taiwan’s accession process, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official in charge of the membership bid said yesterday.
It is regrettable that members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) did not reach agreement on the issue at a summit in Vancouver, Canada, Department of International Cooperation and Economic Affairs Director-General Lien Yu-ping (連玉蘋) said.
CPTPP members were unable to decide at the summit on allowing a working group to be formed that would have advanced Taiwan’s application.
Photo: Huang Chin-hsuan, Taipei Times
Taiwan’s international participation has always faced pressure and therefore the bid needed greater effort due to the “geopolitical reality,” Lien said, hinting that the China factor stood in the way.
However, Taiwan will not give up and will continue its efforts that began when it applied to join the trade bloc on Sept. 22, 2021, to convince the CPTPP members that it has met the high standards required to be part of the bloc, she said.
The CPTPP on Thursday launched an accession process for Costa Rica, which applied to join the bloc in August 2022 — a year after Taiwan.
China’s application to join, submitted about a week before Taiwan’s in 2021, was also put on hold at the meeting.
Asked why the bids of Taiwan and China were held up, while Costa Rica’s moved forward, Canadian Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development Mary Ng (伍鳳儀) said that the agreement remained “completely open to new members,” but a consensus among members is needed to advance an application.
She did not say if member countries’ “one China” policies had prevented Taiwan’s application from moving forward, only saying that Canada’s “one China” policy remained unchanged and reiterating the need for consensus among members to consider membership bids.
Politico last week reported before the annual summit that Taiwan met the trade standards required to join, but that CPTPP members could not reach a consensus on Taiwan’s application, citing unnamed officials from member nations.
The report said Taiwan’s bid had been held up, “because of the politics with China.”
Beijing has opposed Taiwan’s accession to the CPTPP. Taiwanese officials are worried that a successful bid by China could sink Taiwan’s hopes of joining the bloc.
The CPTPP’s decision to focus on Costa Rica first rather than Taiwan or China still had a silver lining — Beijing’s bid was not considered before Taiwan’s although it had applied for membership earlier, Lien said.
She was referring to the requirements set by the CPTPP for new members, which include meeting the trade pact’s high standards, demonstrating a strong track record of meeting trade obligations and garnering a consensus among all members.
Taiwan believes China is not qualified to join the CPTPP based on those principles, given its history of using economic coercion against countries with which it disagrees with, Lien said.
It could take another year before next year’s CPTPP summit to consider Taiwan’s application, she said.
The CPTPP is one of the biggest trade blocs in the world, representing about 15 percent of the global economy.
It has 11 members — Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — with the UK set to become the 12th member later this month.
Canada is this year’s chair of the CPTPP Commission and Australia is to take over the role next year.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
MORE NEEDED: Recall drives against legislators in Miaoli’s two districts and Hsinchu’s second district were still a few thousand signatures short of the second-stage threshold Campaigners aiming to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators yesterday said they expect success in 30 out of 35 districts where drives have passed the second-stage threshold, which would mark a record number of recall votes held at once. Hsinchu County recall campaigners yesterday announced that they reached the second-stage threshold in the recall effort against Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘). A total of 26,414 signatures have been gathered over the past two months, surpassing the 10 percent threshold of 23,287 in Hsinchu County’s second electoral district, chief campaigner Hsieh Ting-ting (謝婷婷) said. “Our target is to gather an additional 1,500 signatures to reach
RSS