Taiwan foreign FTAs opposed
Reuters | Jun 2, 2010
Taiwan foreign FTAs opposed
TAIPEI — TAIWAN protested on Wednesday after China said it will object to foreign countries signing free trade agreements with the island, a blow to what Taipei officials see as a key driver to its US$390 billion(S$551 billion) economy.
In the strongest sign yet that a separate China-Taiwan trade deal in the works has hit a bump, a foreign ministry spokesman said Beijing ’resolutely opposed’ official contact between its diplomatic allies and the self-ruled island, over which it has claimed sovereignty for more than six decades.
Taiwan, which has said it expects an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China to open doors to FTAs with Japan, the United States and Southeast Asian nations, hit back at Beijing, saying it had the right to pursue those deals.
Faded hopes for FTAs could cool markets that have firmed in recent months on hopes that the China trade deal would lead to pacts with major world economies for export-reliant but diplomatically isolated Taiwan.
’We demand that the mainland Chinese authorities not block Taiwan from discussing or signing FTAs with its trade partners,’ the island’s Mainland Affairs Council said in a statement.
Taiwan officials, keen to raise the island’s competitiveness, had already broached the idea of FTAs with foreign governments and two in the Asia-Pacific have said they were interested, the premier told Reuters last month.
