Canada, Taiwan reach foreign investment deal that will boost trade ties – National | 24CA News
Canada and Taiwan have accomplished talks on a bilateral deal to spice up overseas funding and can work to verify it takes impact promptly, Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng and Taiwan’s authorities mentioned on Tuesday.
Taiwan has been looking for better diplomatic and ethical assist from main Western democracies, reminiscent of Canada, because it faces rising navy and political stress from China to offer in to Beijing’s sovereignty claims over the island. As a part of that, Taiwan has been looking for extra commerce offers with Western international locations.
The Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Arrangement is a part of Canada’s plan to extend commerce and affect within the Indo-Pacific area.
Trade between Canada and Taiwan totaled C$10.2 billion in 2021, up from C$7.4 billion in 2020, in line with official Canadian figures. Canada’s complete bilateral commerce with the world is greater than C$1.5 trillion.
Taiwan’s authorities welcomed the news. Its Office of Trade Negotiations mentioned the deal will probably be signed as soon as “administrative procedures” are accomplished, together with authorized evaluations of the textual content.
“Of course we aim to sign as soon as possible, hopefully before the end of the year,” Taiwan’s chief commerce negotiator, John Deng, informed reporters in Taipei.
He mentioned the settlement would assist with Taipei’s bid to hitch a serious pan-Pacific free commerce pact, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP.
Canada holds the rotating chair of the CPTPP subsequent yr, a grouping China has additionally utilized to hitch.
Taiwan has been lobbying members reminiscent of Canada to again its software, saying that not like Beijing, Taipei helps transparency and rule of legislation in its personal financial system and in doing business with different international locations.
China, which views democratically ruled Taiwan as its personal territory, has bitter relations with Canada. Taiwan strongly rejects China’s sovereignty claims.
Canada, like most international locations, has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan, however the two preserve de facto embassies in one another’s capitals.
The Chinese embassy in Ottawa didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard and Jeanny Kao in Taipei; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Gerry Doyle)
