US-Taiwan economic dialogue another show, expert says

A recent economic dialogue held between the US and Taiwan is nothing more than show and will do no good to the island, said Tang Yonghong, the deputy director of the Taiwan Research Center at Xiamen University.

The so-called "Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue" was held from Nov 20 to 21, following Taiwan's exclusion from the recently-signed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which is the world's largest free trade deal.

Tang believed the US and Taiwan chose the time to hold the economic dialogue out of their political and economic considerations. It is in their interests to collude with each other to contain the Chinese mainland, with economic dialogue being a tool to reach their common goal, Tang said.

The island's ruling Democratic Progressive Party has for years sought to expand external space for Taiwan's economic development as the island, an export-oriented economy with a small home market, relies on global resources and markets to support its development, Tang said.

The Chinese mainland is the biggest importer of Taiwan's products and also its No 1 business partner. But over the years, Taiwan has been pushing the "new southbound policy" in an attempt to decouple Taiwan's economic connections with the mainland, Tang said.

While the "new southbound policy" has not achieved desired results, Taiwan's economy will suffer more from its exclusion from the RCEP - considering its trade with RCEP members account for 59 percent of the total, according to Tang.

By holding the so-called "Taiwan-US Economic Dialogue", Taiwan aims to ultimately sign a "bilateral trade agreement" and "free trade agreement" with the US to seek new growth areas for its economy and reduce its reliance on the mainland's market, Tang said.

He said the "Memorandum of Understanding" signed between the two sides during the dialogue, which involves the reshaping of supply chains, the COVID-19 pandemic, and scientific and technological cooperation, will offer a quasi-framework for carrying out dialogues in the short term, whereas no deep or substantial results have been produced and it will not be conducive to Taiwan's economy in any way.

The US, by conducting economic dialogue with Taiwan, intended to play the "Taiwan card" and use Taiwan as a pawn to contain the mainland, Tang said. Even if Tsai Ing-wen's administration had opened up the Taiwan market to US pork and beef, it would not be easy for Taiwan to reach a two-way economic agreement with the US, he said.

Tang said Taiwan authorities should return to the political foundation of the 1992 Consensus and integrate its economy with the mainland by promoting the normalization of cross-Straits economic relations and trade liberalization.

It could only shake off economic woes by integrating its economy with the mainland and then expanding its economic ties with RCEP members, he said.