Gov't must open trade to join TPP: US

Tong made the remark after Hwang Jung-chiou, vice minister of Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), expressed Taiwan's hope to join TPP, an Asia-Pacific regional trade agreement currently being negotiated among nine nations.

TPP is a high-standard and broad-based free trade agreement that aims to integrate the economies of the Asia Pacific region. All of its members are required to have a high level of market openness and remove tariffs on 90 percent of the goods imported.

Current TPP members are the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.

According to Cho Shih-chao, director general of MOEA's Bureau of Foreign Trade, Taiwan has always hoped to hold a nine-plus-one meeting in order to take part in the TPP negotiations, but have not been able to do so thus far.

Tong said that there will be some time before the agreement is signed. TPP negotiations are currently divided among 20 working groups that will release a statement and outlines during the APEC summit in November.

Tong is in Taipei to invite Taiwan to the APEC summit in Hawaii. Issues on the agenda for this year's summit include green growth, global supply chain, and innovation of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME).

During his meeting at the MOEA, Tong also expressed his hope of resolving the U.S. beef import issue as soon as possible.

In response, Hwang said the row over leanness enhancing drugs in beef is not something that the MOEA alone can resolve. However, he stressed that all government departments are working hard to settle the issue.

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