TOUGH TALKS: The political challenge is gaining the approval of the 11 nations as they would each propose their own terms, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua said
Taipei Times
Date: Nov 28, 2017
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter
The nation has a chance of joining the second round of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in 2020 at the earliest, but political uncertainties in each CPTPP member nation remain a potential hurdle, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
“The political challenge is more difficult than getting Taiwan’s economic and trade environment ready when it comes to negotiating with each CPTPP member,” Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) told lawmakers at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee.
During the APEC leaders’ summit in Vietnam earlier this month, trade ministers from 11 Asia-Pacific nations announced that they would push head with a regional free-trade deal following the US’ withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and rename the trade initiative the CPTPP. [FULL STORY]