Taiwan’s prosperity depends on rules-based multilateral trade and the country is committed to cooperating with all members to support the work of the World Trade Organization, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua said at the nation’s WTO Trade Policy Review in Geneva Sept 12.
 
“It is crucial for us that the WTO remains the central pillar to the global trading system,” Wang said at the world body’s quadrennial assessment of Taiwan’s trading policies and practices.
 
The country is advancing its role in open and inclusive multilateral trade by aligning itself with the provisions of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade pact between 11 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific. Likewise, Taiwan is pursuing stronger ties with its neighbors through initiatives such as the New Southbound Policy, she said.
 
A key plank in the government’s national development strategy, the NSP seeks to enhance Taiwan’s agricultural, business, cultural, education, tourism and trade ties with the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations member states, six South Asian countries, Australia and New Zealand.
 
Taiwan is also working more closely with aid agencies and international organizations to assist the WTO’s developing member states achieve the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, she said.
 
Citing the WTO Secretariat’s country report, EU Ambassador to the world body Marc Vanheukelen praised Taiwan’s economic development in the four years since the last assessment. The economy is strong, outward-looking and resilient, he said, adding it remains one of the world’s most competitive.
 
At the TPR, some members raised concerns about Taiwan’s economy such as a shrinking labor force and called for the country to streamline regulations on foreign investment. The meeting will wrap up Sept. 14 and a revised WTO Secretariat report will be issued two weeks later.
 
Taiwan has been a member of the organization since Jan. 1, 2002. The nation was ranked 18th out of the WTO’s top 50 economies for exports at US$317 billion in 2017. (CPY-E)
 
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