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The future of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) remains uncertain. That’s the word from National Development Council Minister Chen Tain-jy on Monday.
TPP is a US-led free trade pact that includes 12 Pacific Rim countries. However, the two US presidential candidates -- Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump – are both against the trade deal which has been signed but not yet ratified. The two candidates believe that the pact will hurt the interests of American workers.
But Chen said that does not mean that the candidates won’t change their mind after the elections. More importantly, Chen said, even if the TPP is unable to materialize in the future, the principle of trade liberalization espoused in the deal will endure, since it is a global trend.
In order to go global, Chen said, leading economies around the world are taking steps to relax restrictions instead of focusing on tariff reductions, since tariff barriers are already low enough.
The national development policy planner said Taiwan has started relaxing rules and regulations even though Taiwan was not included in the first round of negotiations.