Premier Jiang Yi-huah has criticized arguments downplaying the importance of signing free trade agreements (FTAs) with other countries. The Premier was speaking at the Cabinet building on Thursday.
The Premier said that the amount of anxiety that talk of a free trade agreement between China and South Korea has generated shows how important trade agreements are.
Cabinet spokesman Sun Lih-chyun summarized the Premier’s counter-argument.
"If FTA’s were not important, other countries in the Asia-Pacific region wouldn’t be so worried [about the China-Korea trade agreement]," said Sun. From the statements made by business and industry leaders over the past few days, we can see that this isn’t a case of the government intimidating or fooling the people. These statements show just how important FTA’s are. They also show that our industries are aware of just how big of an impact the FTA between China and South Korea will have on Taiwan. We can’t deny these arguments. I ask the economics ministry, the National Development Council, and other related agencies to explain the impact of the China-Korea FTA. We must catch up [with other countries]."
The Premier also reiterated the importance of implementing trade agreements with China. He said that the idea that Taiwan could delay ratifying agreements with China and focus on signing FTA’s with other countries instead is a case of “wishful thinking”.
He said that other countries will not want to hold negotiations on FTA’s with Taiwan as long as Taiwan fails to implement the cross-strait Trade in Services Agreement with China. The agreement has been approved but has remained stalled in the legislature for months.