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Tsai’s envoy to APEC summit seeks support for Taiwan’s CPTPP bid

President Tsai Ing-wen’s (???) envoy to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, Morris Chang (???), a retired semiconductor guru, is seeking support from other member countries for Taiwan’s bid to join the 11-nation Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

In the online APEC Economic Leaders Summit hosted by New Zealand on Friday, Chang, the founder of the world’s largest contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), said economic integration has helped the region forge closer economic and trade ties.

He said in his speech that he has faith in supporting initiatives that deepen economic integration, promote high standards on trade-related rules, and help improve the livelihoods of people across the Asia-Pacific region.

“Because of these beliefs, we have applied to join the CPTPP, a comprehensive agreement that could generate momentum for the development of the region — liberalizing trade and investment while promoting sustainable growth,” Chang said.

“Chinese Taipei plays an irreplaceable role in the global high-tech supply chain. We also have a highly transparent market economy, and are able and willing to respect the CPTPP’s high standards,” Chang added.

Taiwan applied to join the CPTPP in September, just days after China filed its application. It applied 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.

As expected, Chang spoke out in the APEC summit about Taiwan’s willingness to join the CPTPP as Tsai told him to use the occasion to seek support from the APEC’s members.

When asked to comment on Taiwan’s and China’s CPTPP bids in an online news conference after the summit, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said that the trade bloc welcomed any country which meets the agreement’s high standards to file its application.

“Actually, the process of joining us (is) very much for the CPTPP Commission, the member countries,” Ardern said. “So they’ve repeatedly said … any country who wishes to meet the high standard of the CPTPP of course is welcome to enter into that process.”

In a separate news conference held in Taipei Saturday, Chang said he did not see the Chinese representatives to the summit offer any olive branch to Taiwan. China had previously repeated Taiwan should join any international organizations under the “one China principle.”

Chang said Taiwan is well positioned to join the CPTPP, but that it could face some hurdles. Still, he said he had faith that Taiwan still has a good chance to secure admission to the trade bloc.

He said U.S. President Joe Biden did not comment on Taiwan’s bid to join the CPTPP.

In January 2017, then U.S. President Donald Trump announced the United States’ withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the predecessor to the CPTPP.

In his speech to the APEC summit, Chang also touted free trade as being vital to meeting national security needs.

“While shortage of any critical component is a serious problem, free market, which includes free trade and free competition, is still the best solution,” Chang said.

Chang, however, warned that recently free trade seems to carry more conditions and qualifications than it used to.

“We believe most of those conditions and qualifications are counter-productive,” Chang said.

He described the current semiconductor shortage as “a culmination of original underestimate of demand, natural disaster, logistic jam, and digital demand spike.”

In the summit, Chang also mentioned Taiwan has been willing to share its experiences in containing COVID-19 with other APEC member countries.

Taiwan joined APEC as a full member under the name Chinese Taipei in 1991.

It was the fifth time Chang has attended 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 against Taiwan being treated like a country, therefore Taiwan has sent an envoy in their place each time.

Chang first attended the APEC forum on behalf of Taiwan’s president in 2006 during then Chen Shui-bian’s (???) administration.

Having built TSMC into the world’s largest contract chipmaker commanding a more than 50 percent share of the global semiconductor market, Chang officially retired after more than three decades as TSMC’s chairman and CEO on June 5, 2018.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel