ECCT Tax Committee Lunch

Taiwan's economic challenges and the meaning of TPP membership

Guest speaker 
Dr Roy Cun Lee, Executive Director, Taiwan WTO and RTA Center, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER)/中華經濟研究院WTO及RTA中心副執行長李淳博士

12:00 - 14:00, Wednesday, 7 September 2016
The Sherwood Taipei, Han Room (2F) / 台北西華飯店 漢廳 (2樓)
111, Sec.3,  Minsheng East Road, Taipei  / 台北市民生東路三段111號

Taiwan is a trade-dependent country with a trade dependency rate that is significantly higher than those of China, Japan and South Korea. This indicates that Taiwan is more vulnerable to changes in the global trade and investment environment. Further, Taiwan's trade and investment status faces at least three major structural challenges, namely market concentration, product concentration and a lack of investment momentum.

At this event our speaker will make the case that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is one of the key undertakings that is likely to exacerbate the environment if Taiwan is excluded from the bloc. In addition he will give reasons why TPP membership would offer the much-needed external impetus to accelerate the domestic reform process. The main benefits he will cite would include moving from political-based to evidence-based decision-making and enhancement in accountability and consistency through transparency and regulatory coherency. All these factors would be key to underpinning Taiwan's efforts to shift from a traditional economic structure to become a creative and innovation-centered economy and to attract investment.

In addition he will explain that because the reforms needed to participate in the TPP are non-discriminatory in nature, the benefits of Taiwan's TPP membership would extend beyond other TPP members to all trading partners, including the EU.

About the speaker

Dr Roy Lee (Chun) is currently the Deputy Executive Director of the Taiwan WTO and RTA Center, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER). He was previously Assistant Director of CIER's Taiwan WTO Center. Dr Lee specializes in services trade, regional integration, the WTO and cross-Strait economic issues. He is a policy advisor to the government on Taiwan's trade negotiations with mainland China, New Zealand and Singapore, a capital-based expert for Taiwan's delegation to WTO services trade meetings and on general liberalization policies. Dr Lee is a frequent column writer on liberalization policy in major newspapers in Taiwan and served as the first Secretary General for the Taiwan Communications Society between 2008 and 2014. Before joining CIER in 2006, Dr Lee worked as a regulatory expert project consultant for the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) and the ASEAN–Australia Development Cooperation Program (AADCP). Dr Lee received his PhD from the Crawford School of Public Policy at Australian National University.

NT$1,400 for members; NT$2,000 for members' guest(s)

To Cancel without penalty, written cancellations must be received 24 hours prior to the event.
Contact: Salli Yueh/ Tel 2740-0236 ext.219 / salli.yueh@ecct.com.tw / www.ecct.com.tw