Taiwan seeks quick progress on long-stalled EU investment deal

Reuters:

TAIPEI, Dec 20 (Reuters) – Taiwan wants progress to be accelerated on a long-stalled bilateral investment agreement with the European Union, the island’s President Tsai Ing-wen said on Tuesday.

The EU included Taiwan on its list of trade partners for a potential bilateral investment agreement in 2015, the year before Tsai became Taiwan’s president, but it has not held talks with Taiwan on the issue since.

While they are Taiwan’s largest source of foreign investment, the EU and its member states do not have formal diplomatic ties with the democratically ruled island due to objections from China, which considers Taiwan one of its provinces.

Meeting a delegation from the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade, Tsai said Taiwan and the EU should build a “resilient democratic alliance”.

“Taiwan seeks to enhance bilateral economic and trade exchanges, strengthen supply chain security and accelerate progress on the Taiwan-EU bilateral investment agreement, which would instil confidence in businesses on both sides to expand investments,” she told the group, in comments carried live by the presidential office.