WT/REG348/M/1  
 
3 December 2014  
(14-7047)  Page: 1/3  
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Seventy-fifth Session    
 
AGREEMENT BETWEEN NEW ZEALAND AND THE SEPARATE CUSTOMS TERRITORY OF 
TAIWAN, PENGHU, KINMEN AND MATSU ON ECONOMIC COOPERATION, 
GOODS AND SERVICES 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 10 NOVEMBER 2014 
Chairman: Ambassador Francisco Pirez Gordillo (Uruguay) 
1.1.  The 75th Session of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (hereinafter 'CRTA' or the 
'Committee') was convened in Airgram WTO/AIR/4359 dated 2 October 2014. 
1.2.  Under Agenda Item B.IV of the session, the CRTA considered the Agreement between New 
Zealand and the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu on economic 
cooperation, (hereinafter "the Agreement"). 
1.3.  The Chairman said that the Ag reement had entered into force on 1st December 2013. It had 
been notified to the WTO by the Parties on 25 November 2013 under Article XXIV:7(a) of the 
GATT 1994 and the Understanding on the Interpretation of Article XXIV of GATT 1994 as an Agreement establishing a free trade area (document WT/REG348/N/1) and under GATS 
Article V:7(a) as an Agreement providing for the liberalization of trade in services within the 
meaning of Article V of the GATS (document S/C/ N/715). The text of the Agreement was available, 
together with its Annexes, on the Parties' official websites. The Factual Presentation on the goods and services aspects (document WT/REG348/1 dated 16 July 2014) and written questions and 
replies (document WT/REG348/2 dated 28 October 2014) had been issued. He proposed to 
organize the consideration of the Agreement by first asking the Parties and then other Members to give any general comments, then he would turn to the specifics of the Agreement, using the 
Factual Presentation to guide the debate. They would then go through the questions and replies 
document. 
1.4.  The representative of Chinese Taipei thanked the Secretariat for having prepared an 
outstanding Factual Presentation on the Agreem ent between New Zealand and Chinese Taipei on 
Economic Cooperation and New Zealand for their cooperation and efforts to complete the consideration procedure. The delegation also appreciated the written questions provided by 
Singapore, Thailand, and the European Union.  
1.5.  Following the FTAs with Panama, Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador and Honduras, the 
Agreement was Chinese Taipei's first comprehensive agreement with a major trading partner in the Asia Pacific region. On 25 October 2011, Chinese Taipei and New Zealand had agreed to begin 
individual studies on the feasibility of signing an economic cooperation agreement. After these 
studies had been completed, a joint study had been initiated. On 18 May 2012, both sides had released a joint statement announcing the commencement of negotiations. All consultations had 
been conducted in accordance with related provisions under Article XXIV of GATT and Article V of 
GATS. The Agreement had been signed on 10 July  2013, following three rounds of consultations. 
An early announcement had been made on 30 July 2013, and the Agreement had been notified on 25 November of the same year. Chinese Taipei, as a responsible full Member of the WTO, had 
carefully followed WTO norms on these procedures. 
1.6.  The Agreement was a high standard agr eement that substantially covered all goods and 
services trade between Chinese Taipei and New Zealand. On trade in goods, 99.88% of 
Chinese Taipei’s tariff lines were liberalized. Tariffs on virtually all goods would be eliminated when WT/REG348/M/1 
 
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  the Agreement was fully implemented. On trade in  services, the Agreement featured substantial 
sectoral coverage, and its market access provisions were laid down with the negative list approach, illustrating both sides' reservations for existing and future measures. Aside from the restrictive measures listed, both sides had committed to non-discriminatory trade in all service 
sectors. In addition, it had established mechanisms for regulation, harmonization and cooperation 
on non-tariff barriers, services and intellectual property. It also covered a wide range of issues, some of which had yet to be addressed in the WTO, such as investment, air transport services, 
environment, labour, indigenous affairs, as well as film and TV co-production. 
1.7.   After substantive consultations on the Agreement had been concluded, a study had been 
conducted on the negotiated results. The analyses indicated that twelve years after it had entered 
into force and all tariffs would have been eliminated, Chinese Taipei's real GDP would increase by 
US$303 million, aggregate production  by US$1.188 billion, and 6,255 mo re jobs would be created. 
On trade in goods, its manufactured products exported to New Zealand were expected to increase by US$300 to US$600 million, and its imports of New Zealand’s agricultural products were 
expected to increase by US$170 to US$320 million.  It was also expected that the Agreement 
would create many opportunities for businesses from both sides to cooperate with each other in the service sector. 
1.8.  From January to August 2014, bilateral trade between Chinese Taipei and New Zealand had 
increased by 17.5%, compared to the same period  of 2013. This showed that the Agreement had 
had an immediate and positive effect on trade relations between the two sides. Both Chinese Taipei and New Zealand valued the benefits gained from its implementation. Tariffs on 
7,481 products such as cherries and apples had been eliminated immediately after entry into force 
on 1 December 2013, and Chinese Taipei had also sent their representatives to explore further business opportunities in New Zealand. This indica ted that the Agreement had a significant role in 
enhancing bilateral relations between Chinese Taipei and New Zealand, and that such relations 
would be further improved in the future with increased exchanges and collaboration. 
1.9.  The Agreement was a high quality, high standard agreement, which demonstrated Chinese 
Taipei's determination in trade liberalization. They firmly believed that it would bring about 
substantial benefits to both sides, improve their economic structure, and also contribute significantly to the development of the As ia Pacific region and the whole world. 
1.10.  The representative of New Zealand thanked the Chinese Taipei delegation for its opening 
remarks. He underlined that the Agreement was a high quality and comprehensive agreement that 
liberalised and facilitated trade in goods, services and investment and people-to-people links with one of New Zealand’s important trading partners. 
1.11.  As Chinese Taipei had mentioned, the Agreement had been in force since December 2013. 
Its early entry into force had allowed two phases of tariff reductions to occur in quick succession – "entry into force reductions" on 1 December 2013, and "year 1 reductions" on 1 January 2014. 
There had been a marked increase in trade on both sides since entry into force, a sign that the 
implementation of the Agreement was progressing qu ickly and efficiently. It had a busy and active 
implementation agenda, with activity having had already occurred under many of the chapters. 
1.12.  The Agreement provided rapid eliminatio n of tariffs on 100% of New Zealand’s current 
export lines by year 12. On entry into force, it had immediately increased the percentage of 
New Zealand's goods entering Chinese Taipei tariff-free from 25% to 70%; the percentage of imports from Chinese Taipei entering New Zeal and duty-free had increased from 44% to 97.5%. 
New Zealand would eliminate all remaining tariffs on Chinese Taipei's current trade by year 4. The 
Agreement included a range of other areas that marked it out as a modern, forward-looking agreement such as commitments on government procurement, intellectual property and trade 
remedies, as well as provisions covering rules of origin, cooperation on customs procedures, 
sanitary and phytosanitary measures, technical barriers to trade and movement of business persons. It provided WTO-plus commitments in the areas of services and investment, including improved market access in sectors such as education. It also included an "open skies" Air 
Transport Agreement, new opportunities for film an d television cooperation and a number of firsts 
for New Zealand. There was an Indigenous Cooperation Chapter, reflecting the unique connection between Chinese Taipei’s indigenous people and M āori people of New Zealand. This was the first 
time such a chapter had been included in an agreement.  WT/REG348/M/1 
 
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  1.13.  There were also chapters on Trade and Labour and Trade and Environment, including 
immediate liberalisation of 132 products deemed to support green growth and sustainable development objectives. This supported efforts in the WTO and APEC processes to liberalise goods of this nature. The Agreement was New Zealand’s ninth agreement notified to the CRTA. It added 
to New Zealand’s already comprehensive network of agreements in the Asia Pacific region. 
1.14.  New Zealand remained deeply committed to the multilateral trading system and to the 
importance of trade liberalisation through negotiat ions under the WTO framework. In this context, 
they viewed the pursuit of high quality region al agreements, such as the Agreement between 
New Zealand and Chinese Taipei, as complementary and consistent with this very important multilateral framework and considered such agreements as making a useful contribution to moving multilateral trade negotiations forward, by highlighting the benefits of liberalisation. Members 
wishing to gain a greater understanding of the Agreement were encouraged to visit the website of 
the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office (www. nzcio.com), which included the full text of 
the Agreement, a comprehensive guide to the Agreement, various fact sheets on administration 
arrangements, and related material. 
1.15.  The representative of the European Union noted that the Agreement was comprehensive 
and had all the elements of an advanced FTA. Despite the very long implementation period 
envisaged, until 2025, the bulk of the tariffs liberalisation occurred in the first years of the 
implementation period. Furthermore, while bo th Parties had made improvements to their 
commitments under the GATS, on a number of sub-sectors that remained uncommitted under GATS there were no improvements under the FTA.  The delegation underlined the importance of 
having chapters dealing with sustainable trade,  as was the case for the Agreement where these 
issues were covered by two separate chapters on labour and environment. Finally, he thanked the 
Parties for the written replies and confirmed that there were no additional questions.  
1.16.  The representative of the United States joined others thanking the Parties for the work that 
had gone into the Factual Presentation and in to the discussion. He appreciated the detailed 
presentations which were useful and informative and drew attention to Table 5.1 of the Factual 
Presentation where Chinese Taipei had a non-notified agreement and urged them to complete the 
notification as soon as possible. 
1.17.  The representative of the Thailand appreciated the Parties' full and comprehensive 
presentations and thanked the Secretariat for its work in preparing the Factual Presentation and 
the Parties for their responses. He would present follow-up questions in writing if necessary. 
1.18.  The representative of Singapore thanked the Secretariat for the report and the Parties for 
their comprehensive introduction. She appreciated the timely response to her questions and had 
no further questions. 
1.19.  The representative of Chinese Taipei thanked the European Union, Thailand and Singapore 
for their general comments and the United States for having raised their concern again of which he 
had taken note. 
1.20.  The Chairman said that consideration of the Goods and Services Aspects of the Free Trade 
Agreement between New Zealand and the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen 
and Matsu, had allowed the Committee to clarify a number of questions and the oral discussion of 
this RTA could be concluded in accordance with paragraph 11 of the Transparency Mechanism. If 
any delegation wished to ask follow up question s they were invited to forward submissions in 
writing to the Secretariat by 17 November 2014 and Parties were asked to submit replies in writing 
b y  n o  l a t e r  t h a n  1  D e c e m b e r  2 0 1 4 .  I n  a c c o r d ance with paragraph 13 of the Transparency 
Mechanism all written submissions, as well as minutes of this meeting would be circulated promptly, in all WTO official languages, and would be made available on the WTO website.  
1.21.  The Committee took note of the comments made. 
 
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