EP urges the Commission and Council to start talks on EU-Taiwan trade agreement

by N. Peter Kramer

Both sides reiterated that an EU-Taiwan ECA is in the best interests of the two parties.

So significant have EU-Taiwan economic ties become over the past decade that bilateral trade between the two sides totaled 38.3 billion euros in 2012, ranking the EU Taiwan’s fourth largest trade partner, and Taiwan the EU’s seventh largest trade partner in Asia. Moreover, the EU is Taiwan’s largest foreign direct investor, holding more than 25% of all FDI stocks in Taiwan. These strong economic links between the EU and Taiwan have laid the groundwork for maximising the potential for further growth in the two economies.

Since 2008, unprecedented peace across the Taiwan Strait has paved the way for the signing of 19 agreements between Taiwan and mainland China, including the Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), Cross-Strait Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement, and Cross-Strait Trade in Services Agreement. As such, closer EU-Taiwan economic ties will provide EU enterprises with ample opportunity to enter mainland China’s market using Taiwan as a springboard.

Having signed trade and investment promotion agreements, or having started talks and negotiations on such pacts, with its major trading partners—including mainland China, Japan, the United States, Singapore, Korea and New Zealand—Taiwan is willing to begin consultation with the EU on the signing of an ECA that will enhance their mutually beneficial partnership.

The EU recently signed trade agreements with Korea and Singapore and is at the moment negotiating in the South-East Asian region with the Philippines, Malaysia and Japan. For inexplicable reasons, the willingness for an EU-Taiwan ECA on the part of the EU is weak, with the notable exception of the European Parliament. Having adopted the EU’s annual report for Common and Foreign Security Policy (CFSP) in the last four years, the European Parliament (EP) has consistently shown support for an EU-Taiwan ECA. What’s more the EP’s INTA committee has recently adopted a draft motion for a resolution calling on the EU to begin talks with Taiwan on a bilateral investment agreement that would strengthen EU-Taiwan trade relations.

Therefore the EP-Taiwan Friendship Group and the CNAIC have urged the European Commission and the European Council (again) to take measures that would facilitate negotiation over an EU-Taiwan ECA.