Gov't to work toward joining TPP as part of golden decade: Ma

As nine of Taiwan's neighbors on the Pacific Rim — Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam — benefit from partnering in the TPP and Japan also expressed interesting in joining, Ma reiterated yesterday that it was part of his “golden decade” goal for Taiwan to join the TPP.

However, to begin with, it is necessary that the conditions that enable Taiwan to join the TPP be met. Although Taiwan and China have signed the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), currently, only one-fifth of the goods from both sides are included in the deal, he said.

Also, Taiwan is still negotiating with Singapore and New Zealand regarding free trade agreements with each. “Taiwan still has a long way to go toward securing a high-quality free trade agreement,” Ma said.

Taiwan joined the World Trade Organization in 2002, but began bidding for membership in 1990 — it had taken 12 years for Taiwan to be acknowledged then, Ma pointed out. Although conditions are different now and it may not require as much time for the nation to join the TPP, “We need to be pragmatic,” he said.

Since nine of Taiwan's neighbors are already partners in the TPP, if Japan and more other countries were to join in the future “while Taiwan is again left out,” Ma questioned, “How are we going to compete?”

It was precisely because Taiwan did not participate in regional economic integration over the past eight years, during the Democratic Progressive Party administrations, that a reduced share of global markets had resulted, he suggested, saying “We cannot repeat this mistake,” and emphasizing that his government would be extremely careful on the subject.

Ma had made the remarks regarding TPP while meeting with 24 representatives from the Taipei Computer Association (TCA) and the Association of Industries in Science Parks at the Presidential Office.

While Ma so remarked in Taiwan during a meeting with representatives from the Taipei Computer Association (TCA) and the Association of Industries in Science Parks, Lien Chan, who was representing Taiwan at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Honolulu, Hawaii, also came around the topic, as Canada, Japan and Mexico all expressed interest in joining the negotiations of the TPP, and China said it would “earnestly study” whether to also seek membership.

The TPP was originally a multilateral trade agreement signed between Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore in 2005. The U.S. joined on board in 2009, with the aim of making the TPP a zero-tariff agreement, covering 95 percent of goods, by 2015.

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