Lack of trade agreements – a threat to T • Table.Briefings

Frank Bickenbach, Silas Dreier and Wan-Hsin Liu, IfW Kiel

While Taiwan boasts a highly successful electronics industry and trades with the whole world, it has hardly signed any free trade agreements. In times of geopolitical tensions – especially with China – this becomes a crucial weakness.

Despite its small size of fewer than 24 million inhabitants, or 0.3 percent of the world’s population, Taiwan is one of the leading economies in global trade. With a share of almost 2 percent of global trade in goods, Taiwan ranks 16th among all economies in the world in 2021 – compared to just 57th place in terms of population. The most important export markets are China (including Hong Kong) with about 42 percent, followed by the ASEAN countries (16 percent), the US (15 percent), the EU (7 percent) and Japan (7 percent).

Lack of trade agreements – a threat to Taiwan’s future

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