European investments in Taiwan have been steadily increasing over the past two decades and the dramatic rise has been in parallel with the founding and rapid expansion of the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei (ECCT).
The ECCT started with just 50 founding members in 1988. Since then it has expanded to approximately 400 companies and organizations and 700 individual members.
As noted by Mr. Freddie Hoeglund, CEO of ECCT, today, European investors account for approximately 30% of all foreign direct investment in Taiwan, making them the largest group of foreign investors in Taiwan, well ahead of the next largest investors, the United States and Japan.
“EU investment in Taiwan has exceeded $30 billion, far exceeding investments from the United States of $22.01 billion and Japan of $16.64 billion. The steady increase in investments over the past two decades indicates that Europeans remain confident in Taiwan’s economic prospects. Also, Taiwan rose five places on the list of the EU’s trading partners to 14th place, up from 19th place in 2009,” he said.
Taiwan is of interest to European investors for a number of reasons, notably because of Taiwan’s important and dynamic role in the global economy, especially in global information and communication technology production chains. The country also has many other advantages such as a good transport and communications infrastructure, a relatively consistent legal system, a highly skilled and stable workforce, a functioning and affordable universal healthcare system and a good quality of life. These have been made possible thanks to sensible and progressive policies and programs made and implemented by the Taiwan government, although more needs to be done.
Mr. Hoeglund noted that through a network of 28 industry and support committees, the Chamber has been successful in addressing specific concerns and providing concrete recommendations to all levels of government to facilitate improving the business environment.
The ECCT annually publishes a series of position papers that comprise issues identified by its committees as hindering the further development of their respective industries and provide recommendations to the government of Taiwan for improvement of the business environment on general issues as well as industry-specific problems. They also serve to keep the European Commission, the European Parliament as well as the governments of individual European Union member states informed about Taiwan’s business environment.
“Through lobbying government and formulating Position Papers, the ECCT ensures that the European agenda remains on the list of priorities of the Taiwan government. The government has taken our opinions seriously and taken action to improve the investment environment based on our recommendations. Since we began publishing position papers, we have seen progress made on an average of 20-30% of issues raised by its industry and support committees every year,” he said.
The Chamber has a successful track record in promoting the business interests of European companies through communicating with all levels of the Taiwan government on a wide variety of business issues such as tax reform, labor standards laws, improved harbor administration and entry-exit regulations. Through regular committee activities, meetings with government officials and the formulation of Position Papers, the Chamber works with Taiwan's political and business leaders to ensure that conditions for European businesses in Taiwan continue to improve.
“The ECCT's lobbying initiatives bring issues, which have an impact not only on European interests in Taiwan, but also Taiwan's economy and society, to the attention of the Taiwan government. Annually, we meet the government officials at least 70 to 80 times. We also frequently provide opportunities for members to meet with government officials, NGOs and the European Commission.”
He also noted that recently the Chamber launched the Low Carbon Initiative (LCI). The objective of the LCI is to showcase and promote the best European low carbon solutions and practices in order to help Taiwan to meet its goals to reduce carbon emissions in Taiwan.
The LCI will be structured based on its three main objectives arranged in three platforms: Advocacy with the Taiwan government on the best policies to reduce emissions; Best Practices - Showcasing European low carbon solutions ; and, CSR and Education - Raising awareness about low carbon solutions.
Fourteen European firms from the Chamber have already signed up as founding members and have begun planning activities. This will include launching a website and holding seminars, workshops and a major exhibition and conference in June this year. European companies already contribute a lot in various fields towards energy saving, efficiency and consequently sustainability but, in order to reduce emissions, more effort is needed to increase Taiwan’s renewable energy installations and improve energy efficiency, especially in buildings, which account for up to 40% of Taiwan’s energy use.
The chamber is also involved in the EU’s satellite development program. It has been granted funding by the European Commission as part of a consortium, called GNSS.Asia, of five European chambers (from China, South Korea, Japan, India and Taiwan) under the European Business Organisations (EBO) World Wide Network. The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) Asia project falls under the EU’s FP7 program and is linked to promoting technology development related to the Galileo satellite project. The GNSS.Asia consortium’s objective is to develop potential research and industrial partnerships between EU and Asian organisations, including Taiwan.
Among the other recent initiatives, Mr. Hoeglund said that the Chamber recently commissioned Copenhagen Economics to conduct a follow up to its 2008 Trade Enhancement Measures (TEM) agreement study, which analyzed the case for a free trade agreement between the EU and Taiwan. The new study, to be conducted in the first half of 2012, will update the original study, taking into account important developments that have occurred over the past four years, including the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) between Taiwan and mainland China and Korea’s FTAs with the European Union and USA.
The original study made a clear case for a TEM agreement. The report on the study’s findings concluded that a trade deal would boost Taiwanese exports to Europe by €9.84 billion, in particular benefiting Taiwanese manufacturers of electronics and machinery and it would boost Taiwan’s annual GDP by €3.8 billion. The study also concluded that a trade deal would increase annual EU GDP by €2 billion while European exports to Taiwan would increase by €11.8 billion. Such a deal would therefore increase jobs and wealth in both Taiwan and the EU.
Since the release of the original study report, the ECCT has been actively supporting a TEM by calling on the governments of both the EU and Taiwan to begin conducting studies and engaging in preliminary negotiations on a potential TEM, he said.
In this context, he noted that his visit to Seoul from April 25th to 27th, along with an ECCT delegation was a good opportunity to learn about the FTA negotiations. The agreement was implemented in July last year, and the EUCCK played a very important role in assisting the European Commission.
“The visit was part of the ECCT’s ongoing interactions with other chambers in the Worldwide Network of European Business Organisations (EBO). We visited Beijing in 2011 and Shanghai in 2010. During this trip, the delegation was briefed by experts from EUCCK and the EU’s representative in Seoul on details of Korea’s recent free trade deals with the EU and the United States. The delegation also had the opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with their industry counterparts to talk about business developments in their respective industries and regulatory issues in Korea and Taiwan.”
He observed that many of the problems that EU investors face in Taiwain are similar to the issues faced in Korea prior to the FTA. For instance Taiwan has double-testing requirements and Taiwan-only standards, which have hindered imports of European electronics products, automobiles, pharma, cosmetics and other goods.
Decisive action to harmonize Taiwan’s regulatory environment with international standards would go a long way towards improving Taiwan’s competitiveness and attractiveness as an investment destination, he noted.
Speaking on the ECFA, he said that it is a preferential trade agreement between the governments of China and Taiwan that aims to reduce tariffs and commercial barriers between the two sides. The pact, signed on June 29, 2010, in Chongqing, was seen as the most significant agreement since the two sides split after the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
The ECFA has been compared with the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangements mainland China signed with the Special Administrative Regions: Hong Kong and Macau. The deal is thought to be structured to benefit Taiwan far more than mainland China. The advantage to Taiwan would amount to $13.8 billion, while mainland China would receive benefits estimated at $2.86 billion.
It is too soon to measure the full impact of the ECFA on European business but ECCT members have benefited from efforts so far taken to normalize cross-Strait business relations. The two sides signed off on an initial early harvest list of 539 products from Taiwan and 268 items from China to be exempted from tariffs starting on June 1st, 2011 and have since removed around 600 items from the list of products banned from import into Taiwan from China. This leaves another 2,126 items still subject to negotiation. Many of the items banned or restricted are manufactured by European corporations in China.
The ECCT supports the move towards greater cross-Strait business normalization but the benefits of the opening up are being countered by the import ban or restrictions on the import of some 2,100 products manufactured in China. While the number of items on the list has fallen from over 2,700 last year, most of the items regarded as priority items manufactured by European companies in China remain banned or restricted. The ban fosters protectionism, hurts Taiwan’s own industry and consumers and works against the promotion of Taiwan as a regional hub. The ban on numerous models of cars and trucks manufactured by European automakers in China means that local consumers and businesses are deprived of superior quality vehicles at reasonable prices.
“The ban on various motors and other electrical engineering equipment forces our member companies to source these products from alternative, more expensive production locations. This directly leads to a cost disadvantage when selling these products in Taiwan.”
Lifting the ban and other restrictions would benefit businesses and consumers in Taiwan and make Taiwan more attractive to international investors. In turn this would boost Taiwan’s competitiveness. Tariffs currently in place are already low and the main benefits the EU would gain from a TEM would be in addressing non-tariff barriers (NTBs), just as the recent EU-Korea FTA has done.
An EU-Taiwan TEM will be able to tap into the additional trade flows between Taiwan and Mainland China. Gains from an FTA will increase with the ECFA in place and subsequent agreements that would eliminate many of the remaining trade and investment barriers across the Taiwan Strait. Direct beneficiaries will be Taiwan-owned companies and JVs with European partners but ultimately all players will benefit from a more open business environment, he said.
