President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of October 14 with US House of Representatives Member Al Green and a delegation of leaders from overseas Chinese communities in the southern United States. During the meeting, the president stated that the ROC government will continue to strengthen economic and trade ties between the two countries as part of an overall effort to further solidify the friendly bilateral relationship.
Commenting on economic and trade relations, President Ma noted that the United States is Taiwan's third largest trading partner, while Taiwan is the 12th largest trading partner of the United States and the seventh largest market for its agricultural products. The president cited statistics showing that bilateral trade last year came to US$57.8 billion, while trade in the first seven months of this year totaled US$36 billion, up 6.6% year-on-year. This highlights the close and frequent nature of economic and trade ties between the two, he said. President Ma added that in order to further deepen these ties, Taiwan and the United States are discussing a bilateral investment agreement that will hopefully further expand investment relationship.
The president stated that since taking office in 2008, he has worked to re-establish mutual trust between Taiwan and the US at the highest levels of government while simultaneously working to improve cross-strait relations. This, he said, has enabled Taiwan to maintain good relations with both the United States and mainland China at the same time, which is quite beneficial to Taiwan.
In the six years since he took office, President Ma remarked, Taiwan and the mainland have signed 21 agreements, and mainland Chinese travellers have made over 12 million visits to Taiwan. In addition, over 25,000 mainland Chinese students are now studying in Taiwan, so the warmth in the relationship between the two sides is unprecedented. "We have even greater confidence that we will see continued peaceful ties between the two sides," the president said.
President Ma explained that Minister Wang Yu-Chi (王郁琦) of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council and Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) of mainland China's Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council made reciprocal visits in February and June of this year, and that each referred to the other by his official title, which was the first time this had happened in the 65 years since the two sides of the Taiwan Strait came under separate rule. While Taiwan and mainland China still have differences, said the president, economic, trade, and cultural ties over the past six years have greatly diminished the possibility of conflict arising.
In the area of international relations, President Ma mentioned, Taiwan has peacefully resolved fishing disputes with Japan and the Philippines, which has enabled fishermen to work free of worry and take in bigger catches. Even more importantly, the president said, the international community views the stance adopted by Taiwan in a very positive light. For instance, US Secretary of State John Kerry in an address at the East-West Center in Hawaii in August this year said the fisheries agreement between Taiwan and Japan was conducive to peace in the East China Sea.
As for Taiwan's international economic and trade ties, President Ma stated, Taiwan strongly hopes to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, and he expressed hope that these mechanisms will further foster economic, trade, and investment opportunities for Taiwan, so that it can avoid being marginalized amid the process of regional economic integration.