President Tsai Ing-wen (???) is hoping to use this year’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in New Zealand in December as an opportunity to push Taiwan’s bid for admission into a Pacific rim trade bloc.
At a news conference Tuesday, Tsai announced that TSMC founder Morris Chang (???) would serve as Taiwan’s representative to the leaders’ summit at the APEC forum and said she asked him to seek backing for Taiwan’s entry into the 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).
Taiwan applied to join the CPTPP in September under the name “the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu” through its representative in New Zealand, who sent the accession form to New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
New Zealand acts as a depositary for the Pacific Rim trade pact, and is responsible for passing the application to all member states.
The CPTPP free trade deal was signed in March 2018 by Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam, and took effect at the end of that year, following ratification by more than half of the 11 signatories.
At the press event, Tsai said Taiwan’s entry into the CPTPP would help it forge closer industrial ties with the trade bloc’s members and enhance economic security in the region, and she hoped Chang could convey that message.
Chang said the president has asked him to let others know Taiwan is hoping to join the trade bloc so that it can work closely with CPTPP members and its working groups.
He also praised the CPTPP as having high standards, and that Taiwan has already come close to meeting them.
It will be the fifth time Chang attends the APEC forum as Tsai’s envoy. Though Taiwan is an APEC member, its presidents are traditionally prohibited from attending the leaders’ summit due to China’s opposition and have to instead send an envoy in their place.
The December APEC meeting, to be held virtually, will be the second APEC summit organized this year after a closed door summit was held in July to address the COVID-19 threat and the issue of vaccine distribution, with Chang also representing Taiwan.
At the upcoming summit, the leaders of the 21 APEC member countries are expected to focus on possible opportunities and challenges in the post-pandemic era, and Chang will discuss Taiwan’s support for free trade, according to Tsai.
Tsai said she hoped APEC will continue to maintain the spirit of free trade to accelerate the pace of the global economic recovery.
Taiwan joined APEC as a full member under the name Chinese Taipei in 1991.
Chang first attended the APEC forum on behalf of Taiwan’s president in 2006 during then Chen Shui-bian (???) administration.
Having built TSMC into the world’s largest contract chipmaker commanding a more than 50 percent share on the global market, Chang officially retired after more than three decades as TSMC’s chairman and CEO on June 5, 2018.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel