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Former economic planner drums up support for trade pact with China
2010/03/21 21:30:12 |
Taipei, march 21 (CNA) Taiwan's exports to members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be replaced by those from Japan and South Korea should the country be excluded from the present market integration in East Asia, according to a former chief of the Council for Economic Planning and Development.
The East Asian markets are being incorporating into a single trade entity that will threaten Taiwan's role as a vital player in the regional production chain unless it is included, says Chen Tain-jy.
Chen says in his newly published book on the proposed cross-strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) that the China trade pact is both a hedge arrangement against the nation's marginalization and a preemptive measure to ensure Taiwan an advantage in East Asia.
The pact will help the country catch up the 10 years it lost under its previous policy of non-engagement with China, according to Chen.
Taiwan is an important link in the East Asian production chain and a vital provider of components and up-stream materials, with 56 percent of its exports in 2009 going to China and ASEAN countries, which are the top two destinations for Taiwanese exports.
Once a single market is formed in the region with ASEAN at the center, Taiwan's importance will diminish after China, Japan and South Korea all become closely knit together with ASEAN.
Unless Taiwan can preempt this, the production sector on the island will move to China or Southeast Asia, he says.
It will force both domestic and foreign firms to desert the country and send Taiwan's economy into a nosedive, he writes.
However, this scenario could be avoided if Taiwan succeeds in clinching an ECFA, he continues.
Meanwhile, a group led by Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei has called for nixing of the ECFA through a referendum.
In a campaign to solicit endorsement for the referendum in Taipei, Huang said the country is committing suicide by seeking such a deal with China.
While benefiting big enterprises in the petrochemical and textile industries, the pact will harm the interests of small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as farmers and laborers in Taiwan, according to Huang.
He urged the public to scuttle the government's scheme through a referendum, which will need the written sponsorship of more than 86,000 before it can get off the ground.
President Ma Ying-jeou's administration is pushing for the conclusion of the ECFA deal in the middle of this year. (By Maubo Chang) ENDITEM/J
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