‘TPP membership would reduce Taiwan’s economic dependence on China’

LOS ANGELES - Lin Wuu-long, a former Head of Enterprise Management Research at the United Nations, says Taiwan's move to treat joining the regional economic bloc, the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), as a top priority makes sense because it will help Taiwan improve its international competitiveness - and reduce its economic dependence on China.

Lin told a conference here that the total gross domestic product of the 12 TPP negotiating partners accounts for 40% of world GDP, and that their external trade accounts for one-third of the global total. The TPP could become the world's largest free trade bloc, he said.

Joining the TPP would ensure that Taiwan would not have to face the risk of having its industrial base hollowed out, he added. Many Taiwanese manufacturers have migrated abroad, especially to China, to take advantage of cheaper labour and other countries' big domestic markets, a trend that could accelerate if Taiwan remains marginalised and left out of regional trade blocs.
The 12 countries in the TPP negotiations are Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam (ATI).