President Ma Ying-jeou has said that Taiwan’s failure to keep up with the pace of regional economic integration has put the country at a disadvantage.
Ma was speaking Thursday during a meeting with the Dean of the National University of Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Kishore Mahbubhani.
Ma said that a free trade agreement between China and South Korea set to be signed next year poses a particular challenge to Taiwan. Mainland China is Taiwan’s biggest export market, and South Korea one of Taiwan’s strongest trade rivals, with South Korea companies competing directly with Taiwanese companies for market share.
Ma also said that a trade in services pact between Taiwan and Mainland China has been stalled in the legislature for over a year. He said that legislators from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party have refused to discuss approving the pact, occupying the podium and boycotting reviews of the pact.
Ma said that failure to pass the cross-strait trade in services agreement will cause other countries to doubt Taiwan’s commitment to integrating into the regional economy. He said that these doubts could hurt Taiwan’s chances of being allowed to join in free trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
However, Ma also said that Taiwan’s existing free trade agreement with Singapore has been a success. He said that Taiwanese exports to Singapore increased by 7.6% since the agreement was signed last year. Meanwhile, Singapore’s exports to Taiwan have grown by 6% since last year.