Taiwan urged to open its markets to EU

An EU centre will be opened in the Taiwanese capital later this year to help promote EU-Taiwan relations.

It is also hoped the centre will increase public awareness of the EU and its institutions on the island.

The EU centre network in the Asia Pacific region already spans South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Taiwan will be the third east-Asian country to join the network.

Guy Ledoux, director of the Taipei-based European economic and trade office (EETO), said that due to “administrative reasons” there would a slight delay in establishing the centre, but he still hoped it would be operational by the end of the year.

“The good news is the budget has been slightly increased to €1.1m,” he said.

Ledoux said the centre intends to promote knowledge about the EU among Taiwan’s 24 million-strong population.

This, he said, highlights the importance the EU attaches to its relations with Taiwan, even though there are no formal diplomatic ties between the two sides.

The EETO acts as the de facto embassy in Taiwan, promoting bilateral economic and trade exchanges with Taipei in the absence of formal diplomatic relations.

Meanwhile, the EETO has called for Taiwan to open up its market to European consumer products and increase its investment in the EU to narrow the huge trade and investment gap between the two economies.

Ledoux said, “I think we need to find ways of improving European access to Taiwanese markets for European goods.”

He said the EU faces difficulties in exporting to Taiwan food products such as meat, in which it has a strong interest.

The EU is Taiwan’s third largest export market behind China and the US, but ahead of Japan. Trade between the EU and Taiwan increased by 10 per cent in 2007, according to Ledoux.

He also noted that Taiwan is the EU’s 13th largest trading partner and that the EU is the largest economy in the world and the largest foreign investor in Taiwan.

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