On February 7, 2023, coalition member American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan (AmCham Taiwan) published its 2023 Business Climate Survey Report. The results of the study prompted AmCham Taiwan to call on the Taiwan government to accelerate economic reform and establish a US-Taiwan bilateral free trade agreement.
AmCham Taiwan stated in a press release for the report that:
“A majority of AmCham members (73%) consider it important to their business for Taiwan to achieve a bilateral trade agreement with the United States, Taiwan’s second-largest trading partner. As sound regulatory practices are a focus area of the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade, AmCham recommends the government consider the Chamber’s constructive criticism and strive to establish a more investment-friendly regulatory environment.
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The survey confirms the Chamber’s longstanding position that Taiwan requires a faster pace of economic reform and international economic engagement if it is to build the resilience needed to prosper, given the increasingly challenging global and regional environment. AmCham therefore calls on the Taiwan authorities to make exceptional efforts to reduce bureaucracy and fine-tune regulations and on both Taiwan and the U.S. to make faster, deeper progress on the current 21st Century Trade Initiative as the precursor to a long-needed bilateral free trade agreement.”
The US-Taiwan Bilateral Trade Agreement Coalition welcomes this call to action by our Coalition member.