Taiwan and RCEP: Finding a Route into Regional Trade

I prepared this report in November 2014, shortly after taking up the role of Director of the Center for International Trade and Investment (CITI) at Universitas Pelita Harapan. It was the first of two studies commissioned through Taiwan’s trade representation in Jakarta on Taiwan’s options in a changing regional trade landscape.

The question was whether Taiwan should make joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership its overriding priority. Our assessment of the negotiations at the time was cautious: the participating economies had very different ambitions, and we doubted that the eventual agreement would deliver substantial new liberalisation beyond their existing trade arrangements.

That did not mean Taiwan could afford to ignore regional integration. It meant focusing on the commercial outcomes that mattered: maintaining competitive access to markets and creating opportunities for its businesses. Bilateral agreements, including the approach Taiwan had already taken with New Zealand and Singapore, offered another route towards those objectives.

The report examines the political constraints on that strategy, particularly Taiwan’s relationship with mainland China, alongside its economic strengths and scope for domestic reform. My takeaway was that securing useful market access mattered more than membership of any particular agreement. The analysis captures our assessment of the negotiations and Taiwan’s choices in November 2014.

Read the paper

Taiwan and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership: Some Political-Economy and Strategic Considerations, November 2014.

Download the report (PDF, 32 pages)

Read the companion study: Taiwan and TPP.

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Listing photograph: Port of Kaohsiung, Henry Trotter (2003), Wikimedia Commons, public domain.