President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of February 2 with Robert S. Wang, US Senior Official for Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) under the Department of State's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs. Apart from explaining the substantive achievements in economic and trade cooperation between Taiwan and the United States in recent years, the president also emphasized that the ROC will, together with other APEC members, promote the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) to accelerate trade and economic liberalization.
In remarks, President Ma stated that in 2008 upon taking office he indicated his policy objectives: "a prosperous Taiwan, peaceful Taiwan Strait, and friendly international relations." Several years later in 2011 during his campaign for re-election, the president unveiled his "Golden Decade" national vision, which featured "cross-strait peace" and "friendly relations with the international community" as the key objectives. Over the past six years, the government has laid a strong foundation for cross-strait relations and ties between the ROC and the United States, making those two relationships more stable and safer than they have been in several decades.
In discussing progress in ROC-US relations, President Ma commented that 2015 marks the 36th anniversary of the passage of the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA). In the years since it was first passed, the United States has always conscientiously implemented the TRA, upholding its underlying principles. He stated that in the future the ROC will continue to adopt a "low key, no surprises" approach to its relationship with the United States, thereby working to further deepen bilateral relations.
The president noted that the United States is the ROC's second largest trading partner and that the bilateral economic and trade relationship has consistently been quite close. A number of companies from Taiwan immediately announced their participation in the SelectUSA investment initiative that was launched by President Obama in 2013, with ROC companies being among the most active participants in this program. The United States will hold the SelectUSA 2015 Investment Summit in Washington, D.C. in late March, and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) Chairman Francis Kuo-Hsin Liang (梁國新) will lead a delegation of representatives from medium- and large-sized companies to participate in the Summit and interact with American corporate leaders. President Ma said he is confident that this will be helpful in advancing the bilateral trade and economic relationship.
The president also mentioned the cooperative achievements of the ROC and the United States under the APEC framework. He said that the two sides have extended mutual support and maintained close cooperation in the areas of economic integration, women's issues, health and disease prevention, education, small- and medium-sized enterprises, disaster prevention, and anti-terrorism. The ROC, for example, has actively supported the US-led Supply Chain Connectivity Sub-Fund, leading with a donation of US$200,000. It is hoped that each APEC member will be able to improve supply chain connectivity by 10% as soon as possible. Meanwhile, President Ma indicated that the ROC is responding positively to the US-led APEC Scholarship Initiative. The ROC is providing 27 scholarships across various ministries and hopes that the educational exchanges will further expand interaction among APEC members.
As another example of ROC-US cooperation, the president cited various initiatives promoted by the ROC at the APEC summit in Beijing last year that were included in the APEC Economic Leaders' Declaration and the Joint Ministerial Statement from the APEC Ministerial Meeting, including the "Accelerator Network," "APEC Digital Opportunity Centers," and "Multi-year Project on Facilitating Women's Livelihood Development Resilience with ICTs." This points to the many substantive contributions already made by the ROC at these events. In addition, the ROC's Ministry of Labor is presently hard at work promoting the establishment of the APEC Skills Development Capacity Building Center, the largest facility of its kind in Asia. Upon completion, the Center will serve as a training hub for human resources in the Asia-Pacific region, and President Ma is confident that it will be successful in cultivating human resources in the region.
Lastly, the president remarked that APEC's long-term objective is to ultimately be able to establish an Asia-Pacific free trade zone. The participants at last year's APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting passed the Beijing Roadmap for APEC's Contribution to the Realization of the FTAAP, and agreed to form a task force this year to launch a "collective strategic study." It is anticipated that related research will be completed before the end of next year. In the future, Taiwan will also work together with APEC economies to promote the realization of the FTAAP, thereby hastening economic and trade liberalization. In addition, President Ma commented that 70% of Taiwan's external trade is carried out with current members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, with total trade amounting to over US$500 billion. Consequently, since January of last year the relevant government agencies have been actively examining the requirements for the ROC to become a signatory to both agreements. Success in joining these mechanisms would help the ROC to further integrate with the world and enhance its economic and trade competitiveness.