Taipei, April 30 (CNA) Taiwan's Economic Affairs Minister Shih Yen-hsiang reaffirmed Saturday Taipei's wish to participate in East Asia economic integration, but hinted that local people and industries might not be ready to accept consequences of such integration.
Taiwan is keen on engaging in international mechanisms to forge better economic integration in East Asia, such as the Free Trade Agreement of the Asia-Pacific (FTTAP) and the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP) , Shih said in his closing remarks at an international conference in Taipei.
The International Conference on ECFA and East Asia Economic Integration, organized by the local think tank National Policy Foundation, discussed the impact and influence the landmark trade agreement between China and Taiwan has made in the region.
The minister said ECFA, as well as negotiations for free trade with Singapore, signals to the world that Taiwan does not want to be left out of the process of regional economic integration.
Progress has been made, he added, as India and the Philippines, as well as several Southeast Asian countries, have approached Taiwan to liberalize trade.
However, Shih pointed out, there will be many obstacles for Taiwan because it does not have official diplomatic ties with most countries in the region, and has too many political limitations when conducting free trade negotiations.
He also said most people and certain industries in Taiwan do not seem ready to open up domestic markets and face international competition, despite realizing that such arrangements would allow them to do business in other countries more easily as well.
Singapore is the first country to negotiate with Taiwan for an economic partnership agreement, after Taiwan signed the ECFA, for various reasons, said Sarah Y. Tong, a researcher at National University of Singapore. Among them, the two countries have had historically friendly ties. In addition, their industries do not compete as directly against each other.
In that sense, she added, Indonesia is also an ideal partner for Taiwan because its economic structure differs very much with Taiwan's.
Jeff Lin, a professor of Economics at National Taiwan University (NTU), said he is confident about the future of Taiwan-ASEAN economic partnerships because tariffs between the two sides are already low.
Lin called for Taiwan to further open its markets, especially in its service sector, to take advantage of synergies with other countries.
Regarding agriculture, one of the most sensitive sectors in free trade negotiations, Lin argued that it would be less of a concern because Taiwan's government has a strategy to promote its organic agriculture.
In Northeast Asia, negotiations between China, Japan and South Korea for a free trade agreement is an ambitious plan, but the process has been slow, said Lu Hsin-chang, an associate professor at NTU.
But the recent nuclear crisis in Japan has forced the country to cut down on electricity use. One quarter of its corporate activities might relocated to other countries, Lu said, adding that the spread of Japanese businesses could speed up the momentum for economic integration. (By Chris Wang) enditem/ly