President Ma Ying-jeou met on the morning of April 8 with a delegation from the German Bundestag led by Axel Knoerig, a member of the Bundestag's Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy. In addition to briefing his visitors on economic and trade ties and the state of substantive exchanges and cooperation between the ROC and Germany, the president also expressed hope for further enhancement of bilateral relations.
In remarks, the president noted that Mr. Knoerig has been a steadfast friend of Taiwan in the Bundestag, and has been a member of the German-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Group ever since his election to the parliament in 2009. In recent years, for example, he has mobilized some 40 fellow members to sign a joint statement in support of Taiwan's participation in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Such concrete demonstrations of support for Taiwan's participation in international bodies are greatly appreciated, said the president.
Commenting on bilateral relations, President Ma stated that Germany is Taiwan's largest trading partner in the European Union (EU), and Taiwan is Germany's fifth-largest trading partner in Asia. Taiwan exported US$6 billion to Germany in 2015 and imported US$8.6 billion from Germany, thus making for total two-way trade of US$14.6 billion, and the two sides have signed many agreements over the past five or six years. Agreements include a youth working holiday agreement, an agreement on avoidance of double taxation, and an arrangement on the transfer of sentenced persons and cooperation in the enforcement of penal sentences. Since the New Agreement Between Germany and Taiwan for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion entered into force in January of 2013, foreign direct investment in Taiwan from Germany has risen by 340%, and Germany became Taiwan's second-largest source of foreign direct investment in 2014. The participation quota under the two countries' youth working holiday agreement was originally set at 200, but was later raised to 300, and then this past March to 500. If Germany raises the quota further to match Japan's, said the president, it will no doubt further boost bilateral cultural ties.
The president also mentioned that the 16th Taiwan-Germany Joint Economic Cooperation Meeting will be held in Berlin this coming September, while the Industry 4.0 initiative spearheaded by Germany has inspired Taiwan's government to launch its own Productivity 4.0 policy, which will help boost two-way trade and investment cooperation and spur the upgrading of industry.
President Ma pointed out that the ROC government, in order to promote trade liberalization and participate in the regional economic integration process, has signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with mainland China, a Bilateral Investment Arrangement with Japan, and economic cooperation agreements with New Zealand and Singapore. Talks with the US under the bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) have also been resumed. This is all part of an active effort to expand outward. The EU is Taiwan's fifth-largest trading partner, while Taiwan is the EU's seventh-largest trading partner in Asia, and the two sides have a highly complementary economic and trade relationship, so the president expressed hope that the visitors will help push for the signing of a bilateral investment agreement between Taiwan and the EU. Such an agreement, he said, will undoubtedly provide a big boost to economic and trade development on both sides.
Turning to the subject of the ROC government's pursuit of improved cross-strait ties and regional peace, President Ma stated that since taking office in 2008 he has 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 peaceful cross-strait relations in line with the 1992 Consensus—whereby each side acknowledges the existence of "one China" but maintains its own interpretation of what that means. Before he took office there were no direct, regularly scheduled cross-strait flights, but today there are 120 per day, and the cumulative number of tourist arrivals from the mainland has topped 18 million. And on November 7 of last year, he met in Singapore with mainland Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平). At this first such meeting since the two sides came under separate rule 66 years earlier, the two sides affirmed that the 1992 Consensus serves as the two sides' common political foundation and the basis for peace in the Taiwan Strait. As a result, he said, cross-strait relations are more stable now than at any other time in the past 60-plus years.
The president pointed out that the principles that guided Europe's handling of disputes in the North Sea during the 1960s—shelving disputes, sharing resources—inspired him in 2012 to put forward the East China Sea Peace Initiative, and to sign a fisheries agreement with Japan that resolved a long-running bilateral fisheries dispute. He then put forward the South China Sea Peace Initiative and signed the Agreement Concerning the Facilitation of Cooperation on Law Enforcement in Fisheries Matters with the Philippines, which has greatly reduced the number of fisheries disputes in the two countries' overlapping economic zones. Then President Ma made a trip on this past January 28 to Taiping Island (also known as Itu Aba) to thank the personnel stationed there for their hard work and sacrifices. While there, he issued the South China Sea Peace Initiative Roadmap, which shifts attention away from the issue of sovereignty, and toward the sharing of resources, in an active effort to promote a stable regional peace.
Included in the delegation were Bundestag members Tino Sorge, Thomas Stritzl, and Matthias Hauer.