Taiwan, which has intense economic and business ties with
some of the prospective member states of the yet-to-be-formed Trans-Pacific
Partnership (TPP) is very keen to join this group. This was underscored by the
fundraising chair and the key player of the “Taiwan for TPP Committee,” Yeni
Wong, in an exclusive interview.
Yeni’s one-hour discussion centered on the largest
free-trade agreement ever negotiated by the United States and the controversy
it has churned up during a political year. The TPP encompasses the United
States and eleven Asian Pacific countries—Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile,
Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Peru, and Vietnam.
Yeni, who is a business juggernaut and was educated at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, emphasized Taiwan’s strong trading and
business ties with members of the TPP. She highlighted the significance of
groupings such as the TPP for Taiwan’s economy, which is heavily reliant on
foreign trade. Yeni is among those advocating for Taiwanese membership in the
TPP. She tried to explain why it is of pressing importance that the United
States support Taiwan’s bid to join the next round of negotiations for the
regional trade bloc TPP and work directly with Taiwan to boost US domestic
prosperity and actively promote peace and stability in the Asia Pacific.
She noted that international trade is definitely the
lifeblood of vibrant economies, and now is the time to reaffirm American shared
values and the mutual stake we have with Taiwan in promoting a peaceful and
prosperous Asia Pacific region. Taiwan is an economic powerhouse and a center
of technological innovation. Over the past half century, it has grown from an
agricultural society into an indispensable link in the global supply chain.
Taiwan’s high-tech enterprises embody the dynamism that has made the country a
force in the global economy. Sustaining a productive partnership with Taiwan is
an important driver of domestic prosperity and is particularly critical to the
success of US strategic goals in the Asia Pacific region.
Here’s a transcript—edited for length and clarity—of
Yeni’s in-depth interview in which she laid out her thoughts on the prospects
for Taiwan’s participation in TPP.
How could excluding Taiwan from the TPP affect the US
presence in Asia?
Taiwan is an economic powerhouse and a center of
technological innovation. Over the past half century, Taiwan has grown from an
agricultural society into an indispensable link in the global supply chain.
Taiwan’s vibrant democracy fosters a culture of creativity, spurring the nation
to achieve breakthroughs in research and development. Taiwan’s high-tech
enterprises embody the dynamism that has made Taiwan a force in the global
economy. By seeking to join the TPP, Taiwan aims to share its spirit of
entrepreneurship and innovation with regional economies.
The United States and Taiwan share many basic principles,
such as democracy, human rights, and trade. In particular, Taiwan is very
important to the US economy. Trade ties between Taiwan and the United States
have grown closer in recent years. Taiwan has surpassed India and Saudi Arabia
to become the United States’ ninth-largest trading partner, while the United
States is Taiwan’s second-largest trading partner. Bilateral trade between the
United States and Taiwan reached $67.4 billion in 2014.
Why should Taiwan be included in the TPP deal?
Take the close US-Taiwanese economic relations, for
example. In 2013, two-way trade volume between the two countries reached $63.6
billion. The US goods and services exports to Taiwan, along with Taiwan’s investment
in the United States, so far have created or supported more than three hundred
thousand American jobs, according to the US Department of Commerce. In the
first quarter of this year, Taiwan became the ninth-largest US trading partner
globally, ahead of such large economies as India, Russia, and Australia. If Taiwan
is included in the trade agreement, it means more US exports, market access,
and American jobs. The TPP would further encourage Taiwanese firms to invest
more in the United States.
Taiwan is a central geographic hub for the Asia Pacific
region and a leading supplier of intermediate goods and components such as
high-end electronics and leading edge performance fabrics to Asia Pacific
supply chains. US companies partner closely with Taiwanese firms, relying on
them to use the region’s supply chains to deliver products on schedule and
efficiently. Over the past few years, Taiwan signed the Economic Cooperation
Framework Agreement with China, an investment agreement with Japan, and economic
cooperation pacts with New Zealand and Singapore. These agreements demonstrate
the country’s firm determination and all-out effort to liberalize its economy
and participate in regional economic integration.
Taiwan is now ready to work proactively with the United
States to contribute to the high standards of the TPP. As a first step toward
its admission to the system, Taiwan, hopefully, can conclude a bilateral
investment agreement with the United States to further regularize its extensive
business exchanges with this country, leading to a closely connected US-Taiwanese
partnership and heading toward the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Why should the United States
support TPP membership for Taiwan?
TPP is a vital component of the United States’ continued
involvement in a rapidly shifting Asia. Not only is Taiwan a vital economic and
security partner of the United States in East Asia, as noted by senior US
officials, but Taiwan also plays an important role in the global supply chain
of the IT industry. Many US senior officials have already publicly welcomed
Taiwan’s entry into the TPP and stated that the United States will give Taiwan
serious consideration as a candidate for TPP membership.
As a dynamic and longtime US ally devoted to regional
peace and stability, Taiwan’s inclusion in TPP strengthens US ties with other
like-minded economies in Asia. Taiwan is also too important to the global
economy and to the prosperity of the Asia Pacific region to be left out of this
vital trade agreement. It makes sense to include one of the United States’
strongest democratic allies in East Asia and to use the tool of regional
integration to benefit both the US and Taiwanese economies.
Why should Taiwan be part of second-round TPP negotiation?
As the administration follows through on its rebalancing
of Asia policy, Taiwan will play an integral role. Since Taiwan is one of
America’s strongest allies in Asia, the United States needs to continue to
support Taiwan’s inclusion in the TPP; otherwise, Taiwan will fail to remain
competitive, which may result in a decrease of purchases of American products.
This, in turn, could negatively affect American farmers and manufacturers that
count on Taiwan to buy their products.
A presence is not just battleships or aircraft carriers.
You have to have trade and have the goods exchanged. And the TPP is
Washington’s way of doing this. The United States has demonstrated its
leadership in successfully negotiating an ambitious blueprint for economic
governance. But this will mean little if the TPP does not include Taiwan’s vast
economy. It is of pressing importance that the United States support Taiwan’s
bid to join the next round of negotiations for the regional trade bloc
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Why does Clinton support the Trans-Pacific Partnership
while Trump does not?
Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton
originally seemed to back TPP and spoke positively about the negotiations when
she was the US secretary of state, but once the pact was negotiated, she said
she couldn’t support it in its current form because it didn’t provide the basic
safety net that American workers need to compete in the global economy.
Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump has been adamant about denouncing
the trade pact or any kind of free-trade agreements, noting that as president
he would slap a 45 percent tariff on Chinese-made goods and tariffs on many
other imports and bring back manufacturing jobs to the United States.
[Yeni shied away from discussing anything that Clinton or
Trump might do if they were elected president, but she did note that research
has shown that launching a trade war and curtailing free trade would stifle US
exports, leading to job losses and a recession. “Globalization is happening.
It’s like the genie. We can’t put it back in the bottle, but we can use
free-trade agreements to shape and open other markets and then raise standards
in those countries so there is a more level playing field,” she said.]
What are the strategic implications of Taiwan’s
participation in TPP?
Noting that Taiwan is the United States’ ninth-largest
trading partner and its seventh-largest market for agricultural products, Yeni
said the two sides are discussing a wide range of issues under the bilateral
Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA). These issues, for instance,
include increasing trade and encouraging Taiwanese investments in the United
States, she said.
What Taiwan and the United States are discussing under the
TIFA would also “be a kind of a stepping-stone to things that would need to be
done by Taiwan in order to qualify itself for entry into TPP [Trans-Pacific
Partnership],” Yeni added. On the question of Taiwan’s ban on US pork that
contains residues of the leanness-enhancing drug ractopamine, Yeni said
Taiwan’s standards on meat imports would be one of the issues that would “come
into play at some point” in bilateral talks. The US stance is that “these kinds
of standards should be based on scientific standards and things that can be
shown and proven through experience and experimentation,” she said.
The top Taiwanese entrepreneur in Washington made a
passionate plea for US leaders to more vocally support Taiwan’s inclusion in
key Western-backed institutions on the world stage—especially as the tiny
island democracy engages in increasingly complex economic ties with China. “The
more we engage with China, the more support we need from the United States,”
Yeni told me in an exclusive interview at the Institute for Taiwan-America
Studies headquarters on H Street.
At the end of the interview, Yeni appealed to the United
States to support Taiwan’s inclusion in the TPP: “Membership for Taiwan would
not only benefit both our countries but also support our common desire for
peace and prosperity in the region,” she concluded.