Taiwan calls on UK to support bid for Pacific trade pact

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen has called on the United Kingdom to support the island’s bid to join the major pan-Pacific free trade pact. This comes as London has also applied to join the pact.

During a visit of British lawmakers to the island on Monday, Tsai said she hopes the UK could become part of the trade pact as soon as possible, which would remove 95 percent of tariffs between the 11 countries already part of the agreement – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. Taiwan applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership in 2021.

“I also hope that given its disposition for maintaining high standards, Britain will support Taiwan’s bid to join the agreement. This would do much to allow Taiwan and Britain to continue deepening their partnership,” said Tsai.

Last October, the pact’s members issued a statement following a meeting in Singapore, saying that the UK’s application to join the trade agreement was making progress. The members said that subsequent applications would need to show “a demonstrated pattern of complying with their trade commitments.”

China also applied to join the pact in 2021 but has opposed Taiwan’s application. Beijing claims the democratically-governed island as its territory and has not ruled out using force to take over the nation. Taiwan has repeatedly rejected China’s sovereignty claims.

Aside from Taiwan and China, Ecuador and Costa Rica have also applied to join the trade pact. While the UK has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, it has shown its support for the island amidst growing threats from Beijing, which also opposes visits by foreign governments to the island.

Taiwan has increasingly welcomed visits by foreign governments to the island in recent months following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit in August last year. Early next week, German education minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger will be visiting Taiwan, marking the highest-level visit to Taiwan by a German official since 1997.

Stark-Watzinger’s visit would aim to improve cooperation between Germany and Taiwan on semiconductors, a ministry spokesperson said Friday last week. The spokesperson added that the matter of the island’s sovereignty would not be the focus of the visit.