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President Ma Urges to Speed Joining TPP & RCEP

2014/01/16 | By Judy Li

President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan instructed ranking government officials to accelerate Taiwan's joining the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP) and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

The TPP is a multilateral regional trade agreement currently comprising Chile, Brunei, Singapore and New Zealand; while RCEP is a free trade agreement (FTA) scheme of the 10 ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member states with its FTA partners (Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand) to be concluded by the end of 2015.

Economics Minister C. C. Chang, echoing Ma, indicates that to join TPP is the government's first priority and its second step is to participate RCEP as joining the former is easier and simpler than the latter.

Chang notes that Taiwan may complete negotiations with TPP members about its membership as early as March or the latest by June of this year, with talks about entering RCEP not to be completed until 2015.

To carry out the said mission, President Ma has assigned  former Vice President Vincent Siew to form a task force with Chang and Chi Shive, minister without portfolio, to be joint administrators to call meetings of government officials, industrial experts, business leaders, and scholars to jointly map out plans and strategies.

The first meeting is scheduled for as early as the end of February to target working out effective approaches by the end of July. Chang says that Taiwan, once a member of TPP, can export duty-free to member countries, to save an estimated US$60 of every US$100. (JL)