December 10, 2015
No.284
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed December 10 the Republic of China’s determination to join the second round of accession negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership. At a reception for the diplomatic corps, MOFA called on those present to request that their home countries publicly support ROC accession to the agreement.
The final draft of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement was made public November 5, since which time the ROC government has completed a preliminary review of the text and begun preparing for application.
The ROC is the world’s 19th-largest trading nation, with foreign trade accounting for 111 percent of GDP in 2014. At the reception, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bruce J. D. Linghu stressed the importance of trade to Taiwan’s economic development, and that TPP signatories are all key trading partners of the ROC and enjoy strong industrial links with the ROC. Moreover, he stated, failure to accede to the agreement would be detrimental to the nation’s long-term economic interests and to regional industrial chains. As such, he said the ROC hopes that TPP signatories will support the nation’s accession, as it will be beneficial to all parties, and called on related nations to act before the agreement comes into force by beginning bilateral negotiations or discussions with the ROC. Highlighting the nation’s readiness and conviction to accede to the TPP, the ROC concluded a high-standard economic cooperation agreement with New Zealand and an economic partnership agreement with Singapore in 2013. Both of these nations are TPP signatories.
Chang Hui-chuan, Director-General of the National Development Council’s Department of Overall Planning, and Fann Der-an, Director of the Bureau of Foreign Trade’s Multilateral Trade Affairs Division reported to those present on the ROC’s progress on related issues. They also pointed out that the Executive Yuan, on November 24, had published a preliminary summary of domestic laws that fall short of TPP standards and instructed related ministries to submit bills including amendments to said laws and related measures by the end of March 2016.
Following these remarks, MOFA representatives and members of the diplomatic corps discussed a broad range of issues related to the TPP (E)