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Taiwan Deserves Better From the World Community
| Article
# : |
19546 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1991 |
2,794 Words |
| Author
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Patrick Clawson
Patrick Clawson is editor of Orbis and a resident scholar at
the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He was previously a
senior economist at the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund. |
During the 1970s and 1980s, Taiwan was increasingly recognized as a political and economic success, based on its rapid economic growth and democratization. Capitalist Taiwan triumphed over the communist mainland in the ideological battle over which China was the more successful at modernization. By the 1989 Tiananmen massacre in Beijing, most mainland intellectuals agreed that the Taiwanese system was preferable to that of the People's Republic of China. Ironically, even as its successes were becoming well known, Taiwan was losing ground in the international political arena. Western countries dropped recognition of Taiwan in the rush to open relations with the mainland.
As part of its efforts to isolate Taiwan diplomatically, the People's Republic has campaigned for 20 years to drive Taiwan out of world organizations. Taiwan has been thrown out of a wide array of international organizations to which it once belonged, the most prominent being the UN Security Council. Taiwan is accepted by but a few international organizations such as the Asian Development Bank, which appreciates the financial contribution of Taiwan.
Taiwan is considering an application to join the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT). The U.S. Congress has supported this application as part of the resolution on the conditions for continuation of mainland China's Most Favored Nation (MFN) status, which gives it the lowest tariff rates on goods imported into the U.S. In response, President Bush wrote Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana) and 14 colleagues, "Although it is not directly related to China's MFN status, I share your interest in Taiwan's accession [membership] in GATT." He did not, however, say if he would take any action to back up this pious hope. The issue will not go away because, as Bush implied, the question of Taiwan's membership in GATT is important in its own right, not simply as a way to needle the mainland.
GATT is the organization through which countries agree on a common set of rules about world trade. Its 103 members are served by a small staff in Geneva. It is best know for the agreements to limit tariffs, arrived at after rounds of negotiations like the current Uruguay Round. The Uruguay Round has gone beyond the usual issue of tariffs to look at a host of other barriers to trade, ranging from quotas to product standards to subsidies for farmers.
GATT also provides a forum for charges of unfair trade practices between countries so that these charges can be dealt with by neutral experts rather than becoming political footballs tossed
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