President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文)

Taipei, April 11 (CNA) President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has asked her administrative and national security teams to keep a close watch on the trade tensions between the United States and China, a spokesman for her Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said Wednesday.

Tsai gave the directive during a weekly meeting of the DPP at which a report on the current U.S.-China trade dispute and the implications for Taiwan was presented by Roy Chun Lee (李淳), an associate research fellow and deputy director of the Taiwan World Trade Organization and Regional Trade Agreements Center of the Chung Hua Institution for Economic Research, the spokesman Tsai Shih-ying (蔡適應) told the media.

According to the spokesman, the president asked her teams to keep a close eye on the situation and to be prepared with countermeasures so that the government can help local industries deal with the potential impact and thereby minimize any damage to the country's economy.

Taiwan's actions will include implementing its "5 plus 2" industrial innovation development program and advancing its New Southbound Policy, which has allowed trade diversification and could minimize any fallout from a U.S.-China trade war, the president said, according to the spokesman.

The president, who is chairwoman of the DPP, also asked her teams to expedite Taiwan's efforts to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, a new regional trade deal that was formed by the remaining 11 members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership after the U.S. dropped out, the spokesman said.

(By Lu Hsin-hui and Kuan-lin Liu)
Enditem/pc