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Abstract
Taiwan businesses and policymakers recognise the importance of actively participating in regional economic integration agreements in the Asia-Pacific to avoid marginalisation from the emerging economic community. This has been a challenge due to Taiwan’s position in the international system and Beijing’s opposition to Taipei negotiating state-to-state agreements. The signing of the economic cooperation agreement with New Zealand (Agreement between New Zealand and the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu on Economic Cooperation, July 2013) and the economic partnership agreement with Singapore (Agreement between Singapore and the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu on Economic Partnership, November 2013) shows that an alternative pathway for participating in regional economic integration is possible. Based on extensive interviews in Taipei, the article identifies a framework for this pathway with three enablers and constraints: first, the use of the World Trade Organization nomenclature (Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu); second, improved cross-strait relations and the signing of the Cross-Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (2010); and, third, growth in the number of countries with existing preferential economic agreements and good relations with the People’s Republic of China. This framework is discussed as one of four possible pathways to greater participation in regional integration with reference to potential trade agreements in the region and Beijing’s one China policy.
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Jason Young
Jason Young is Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations at Victoria University of Wellington and Research Fellow at the New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre. Jason is author of China’s Hukou System: Markets, Migrants and Institutional Change (Palgrave Macmillan 2013) and is currently completing a Marsden Fast Start Grant from the Royal Society of New Zealand focusing on the impact of foreign investment on Chinese rural development. Jason’s teaching and research explore the political-economy of development in China and East Asia. Jason lived and studied in Taipei and Taichung from 2000 to 2004, and recently returned as a visiting fellow under the Taiwan Fellowship programme where he was based at Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research.