U.S. think tank experts in Washington on Wednesday noted challenges for Taiwan's ambitions to cultivate deeper economic ties with the United States.
▲圖／翻攝自中國郵報
"There are people in the Trump administration with a soft spot for Taiwan," said Scott Miller, Center for Strategic and Internal Studies (CSIS) senior adviser and school chair of international business, adding that those advisers may support strengthening economic ties with the island.
But challenges lay ahead in pushing deeper economic relations, including those related to concessions Taiwan was willing to make to achieve deals with the U.S.
Miller also noted that a bilateral trade deal between the U.S. and Taiwan could be more beneficial for Taiwan, as Taiwan sought to diversify trade that had mainly been concentrated in China. On whether such a deal could be brokered remained "up in the air."
Matthew Goodman, the CSIS' senior adviser for Asian economics, says that there was "more prospect on the political side for a deal with Taiwan" with the economic arena remaining more challenging. Goodman noted that President Tsai Ing-wen, who had trade negotiation experience, needed to consider whether to "take the heat" and make concessions on issues including Taiwan's agricultural sector.
Both experts spoke on a broad range of political-economic issues in "Who Will Write the Rules for Trade" panel as part of the think tank's Asia Forecast 2017.
Among issues discussed included the effect of U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and China's ambitions with its own Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership.
Seventy percent of participants on the CSIS panel voted that U.S.-China economic relations would "slide into mutual recrimination and tit-for-tat retaliation."
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