Date: 19 February 2019

ECCT CEO Freddie Höglund and Director Bart Linssen travelled to Brussels, Belgium to give presentations at a hearing hosted by the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade (INTA). The purpose of the hearing was to discuss the case for an EU-Taiwan Bilateral Investment Agreement (BIA). In their presentations, both speakers offered arguments in support of a BIA from the perspective of European business in Taiwan.

In his presentation, CEO Höglund said that a BIA is important for European business in order to safeguard existing investments and to make the investment environment more attractive for future investments in both Taiwan and Europe. He reiterated that the ECCT has since 2008 been calling for a trade enhancement measures or similar agreement that would strengthen EU-Taiwan investment and trade relations and address non-tariff barriers. He listed several aspects of the Comprehensive and Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada and the EU-Singapore investment agreement that would provide useful references and starting points for items to include in the BIA. In his presentation, Bart Linssen spoke about issues facing the wind energy industry in Taiwan. If these issues could be addressed in a BIA, he said that it would offer protection to investors and help to speed up the development of the industry in Taiwan. Given the huge investments and potential of the industry to provide clean energy, create jobs and a new industry supply chain in Taiwan, dealing with these issues in the BIA would provide multiple benefits for business, the economy and the people of Taiwan.

INTA Public Hearing on EU-Taiwan trade relations