TAIWAN AND PARAGUAY SIGN ECONOMIC AGREEMENTS|台巴簽經濟協定 進軍"南方共同市場"

Taiwan and Paraguay yesterday signed a bilateral economic agreement. The deal is considered Taiwan's first step in making inroads into the relatively protective trade bloc that is Mercosur. Mercosur consists of 5 south American countries and is the 5th largest economic bloc in the world. President Tsai Ing-wen and Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes witnessed the signing of bilateral economic cooperation agreement. This will be the first step for Taiwan exports to enjoy lower tariffs from Mercosur. == CHEN AI-LAN Bureau of Foreign Trade== One part is the product listing for lowering tariffs. The other part is we place an emphasis on bilateral technology exchanges between small and medium enterprises; also, the cooperation on investing. We hope to facilitate the economic growth and development for the two countries. The Ministry of Economic Affairs stated, this agreement signing is a major progress for Taiwan trades. Paraguay is the founding nation to Mercosur,which consists five South American nations. Mercosur is sub-regional block with a population of 300 million. Its regional GDP is nearly US$3 trillion, the fifth largest economy in the world.Last year Taiwan had bilateral trades with Paraguay at amount of US$47.53 million. Taiwan's exports to Paraguay are mainly plastic, textile, and auto parts. Paraguay's exports to Taiwan are beef, sorghum and sesame. ==LEE CHUN Dep-Dir., WTO and RTA, CIER == We must admit, Paraguay is very distant from Taiwan, we are not familiar with her language and culture. In this agreement, many benefits would not show until many years later. This signing reminds us, in addition to ASEAN and China, the world has other very large markets exist. A researcher suggests that the ROC government should reflect on this experience and develop bilateral economic relations with non-diplomatic countries and major economic partners, and create new markets and opportunities for Taiwan enterprise. TRANSLATED BY：ANTHONY LIN 台灣與巴拉圭今天簽署台巴經濟合作協定，這是台灣打入屬性相對封閉的南方共同市場的第一步。南方共同市場是五個南美洲國家的區域貿易協定，是全球第五大經濟體。未來協定生效後，將可加強台巴雙邊經貿、投資合作。 在蔡總統與巴拉圭卡提斯總統共同見證下，經濟部長李世光與巴國工商部長雷伊德，完成簽署「台巴經濟合作協定」，是台灣進入南方共同市場的第一步。 == 經濟部國貿局組長 陳愛蘭== 一個是部分產品降稅清單 另外一部份就是更著重在 雙方在技術 中小企業 還有投資方面領域的一個合作 希望這樣子來促進 兩國的經濟成長和發展 經濟部表示，這次合作協定是台灣經貿一大進展。而巴拉圭是「南方共同市場」創始成員國，所謂的南方共同市場是五個南美洲國家的區域貿易協定，人口高達三億、區域GDP產值接近3兆美元，是全球第五大經濟體， 去年台灣與巴拉圭雙邊貿易額達4,753萬美元，台灣出口到巴拉圭以塑膠、紡織、機動車輛零部件等產品為主，巴拉圭進口到台灣則以牛肉、高粱、芝麻等農產品為主。 ==中經院WTO與RTA中心副執行長 李淳== 不可諱言 巴拉圭距離台灣非常遙遠 語言文化其實都不是台灣熟悉的 我們知道這種協定裡面 很多的效益 它其實要過了好幾年 才會慢慢展現 藉由台巴這次洽簽的機會 反而讓我們 提醒了我們 事實上這個世界除了東協 除了中國以外 還有很大的市場存在 學者則建議政府，應該進一步思考，如何藉由本次洽談經驗，與其他非邦交國、重要的經濟伙伴發展合作模式，進而替台商創造新的海外市場佈局。