President Ma Ying-jeou met on the afternoon of May 14 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 achievements and progress of the government in promoting ROC-US and cross-strait relations, the president also reiterated Taiwan's intent to enter the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
In remarks, the president stated that high ranking officials from the ROC and the United States have made frequent reciprocal visits over the past year, especially since the visit to Taiwan by US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy in April of last year. High-ranking American visitors to the ROC have included Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Asia Holly Vineyard, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs at the Department of State Kurt Tong. Meanwhile, the ROC's Council of Agriculture Minister Chen Bao-ji (陳保基) and Financial Supervisory Commission Minister Tseng Ming-chung (曾銘宗) have visited the United States. Minister of Economic Affairs John C. C. Deng (鄧振中) also visited the United States in February this year, making him the first economics minister from the ROC to visit the United States since 2004. These mutual visits by high-ranking officials demonstrate the strong and stable mutual trust between the two countries, the president said.
The president went on to say that Senior Official Wang was in Taiwan to attend the Conference on Next Generation Power in Asia, where he will be the keynote speaker. Many Southeast Asian nations have expressed an interest in this conference, with relatively high-level officials from Vietnam, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor here to participate. That conference marked another successful example of cooperation between the ROC and the United States on global issues, following the International Environmental Partnership that was launched by the ROC last year and joined by the United States, as well as the active ROC-US cooperation over the past half year to prevent the spread of the Ebola virus and provide assistance to refugees in the Middle East. This highlights the ROC's role as an important partner of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region, he said.
Commenting on ROC-US economic and trade relations, the president stated that as of the end of March this year, Taiwan is the 10th largest trading partner of the United States, while the United States is the ROC's third largest trading partner. Taiwan and the United States resumed negotiations under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) in 2013, which has yielded a number of results, with the two sides last year holding consultations on investment, multilateral and regional cooperation, intellectual property, and agriculture, while also convening 12 working meetings. This points to the important function of the TIFA as a platform for interaction on economic and trade issues between the two countries, he said. In addition, the United States in 2013 listed Taiwan as an important cooperative partner in its SelectUSA investment initiative, and companies from Taiwan were enthusiastic participants in the 2015 SelectUSA Investment Summit held in Washington, D.C. in March. The delegation from Taiwan was one of the largest among the 80 in attendance, he said.
The president remarked that negotiations are currently being held on the American-led TPP. Although a Senate procedural vote on May 13 regarding fast-track Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) failed to pass prevented the review process from going forward, Taiwan still hopes to join the TPP multilateral negotiations as soon as possible. This, he said, would enable Taiwan in the future to compete with other nations in a fair and mutually beneficial environment.
Turning to cross-strait relations, the president explained to Senior Official Wang that he has emphasized repeatedly in recent years that the "1992 Consensus" is crucial to ensuring cross-strait peace and prosperity. The two sides in the future should continue to build mutual trust and promote peaceful development on this foundation, the president said.
The president furthermore stated that over the past seven years, the ROC government has consistently sought, under the framework of the ROC Constitution, to maintain the status quo of "no unification, no independence, and no use of force" in the Taiwan Strait, and to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait ties under the "1992 Consensus," whereby each side acknowledges the existence of "one China" but maintains its own interpretation of what that means. The two sides have signed 21 agreements to date, creating the "current status quo." The president stressed that working to maintain the status quo has been the correct policy, as efforts in this regard have enabled the two sides to establish mutual trust.
The president commented that last year the heads of the agencies on both sides responsible for cross-strait affairs met in Nanjing, Taipei, and Beijing, during which they referred to each other using their official titles. This shows that cross-strait relations are becoming more and more institutionalized and normalized, he said, adding that the ROC's Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew L. Y. Hsia (夏立言) and Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) of the mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council will meet in the near future in Kinmen.
President Ma stated that he will continue to push for the signing of the Cross-Strait Trade in Goods Agreement over his remaining term in office, as well as the establishment of reciprocal representative offices. At the same time, Taiwan will seek to participate in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and other multilateral regional economic organizations under the conditions of "dignity and equality" in order to expand bilateral economic cooperation and assist in the development of developing countries around the world.
The president stressed that in recent years the ROC and the United States have experienced impressive achievements in their cooperation under the APEC framework. The two countries have worked in close concert in the areas of economic integration, women's issues, health and disease prevention, disaster prevention, and anti-terrorism. Meanwhile, this year the United States, under the APEC framework, expressed concern about topics such as disaster risk management, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and the service industry, and will hold the APEC Small & Medium Enterprises Working Group Meeting in Atlanta in June. The president said that Taiwan not only will encourage enterprises to participate, but also will have discussions with the United States during the course of the event. As 98% of enterprises in Taiwan are small- and medium-sized, the president is confident that they will share valuable experiences with their US counterparts.