Taipei, Dec. 22 (CNA) Legislators expressed concern Wednesday about Taiwan's strategy in its efforts to sign free trade agreements (FTAs) with its trading partners and to compete with South Korea.
Taiwan is lagging behind South Korea, which signed an FTA with the European Union (EU) in October and is scheduled in January to ratify an FTA that it inked with the United States (U.S.) four years ago, said Legislator Lin Yu-fang of the ruling Kuomintang (KMT).
Despite Taiwan's historic trade pact with China and the ensuing FTA negotiations with Singapore, Taiwan has made little progress in terms of its broader FTA drive, Lin said in a session of the Foreign and National Defense Affairs Committee of the legislature.
Taiwan has four FTAs with its five Central American allies. In June this year, it inked an Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China and in August began to explore the possibility of an FTA with Singapore.
But compared to South Korea, its toughest economic rival in Asia, Taiwan lacks an effective strategy, according to some of the legislators in the session.
However, Deputy Economics Minister Francis Kuo-hsin Liang said there are other factors that must be taken into account.
"South Korea has always been a threat to us, " he conceded. However, while around one third of South Korean exports to the U.S. overlap with Taiwanese products, the total value of the South Korean products "is not as much as people believe," he said.
In the EU market, the situation is almost the same, he said. In other words, the effect of South Korea's FTAs with the two major economies of the U.S. and EU is not that great, Liang said.
"On the other hand, South Korea is concerned about being at a disadvantage in the Chinese market since Taiwan and China signed the ECFA, "Liang said.
Deputy Foreign Minister Thomas Ping-fu Hou said in the session that it is easier for South Korea to seek FTAs because it has official diplomatic relations with more countries.
The Taiwan government has said that its primary targets for FTAs are the U.S., the EU, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
But KMT legislators Shuai Hua-min and Liao Wan-ju warned Wednesday against pursuing as many FTAs as possible without employing a strategy that would comprehensively weigh the pros and cons of trade liberalization.
"The FTA drive should not be a game of numbers, " Shuai said.
Shuai also urged the government to use the ECFA to gain a better foothold in China, which does not have FTAs with either South Korea or Japan. (By Chris Wang) enditem /pc