President Ma Ying-jeou says he hopes Taiwan can sign an economic agreement with the European Union (EU). He spoke about the possibility on Monday, when meeting with Senator Lucio Malan, who is the president of the Italy-Taiwan Inter-parliamentary Friendship Group.
President Ma said that ties between Taiwan and Italy have strengthened in recent years, and that the two countries have frequent exchanges in business, technology and culture.
“In order to increase two-way investment, the Italian Parliament on April 15th passed an act to prevent double taxation between Taiwan and Italy, and it took effect on May 16th," said Ma.
"We hope that the two sides can sign an agreement as soon as possible to give a boost to Taiwan-EU business relations," he said. "That would require an economic cooperation agreement.”
President Ma cited research conducted by a Danish think tank, saying that an economic agreement would boost Taiwan-EU trade to more than EU$10 billion (US$11.2 billion.) He said he hoped Senator Malan could throw his support behind such an agreement.
Italy is Taiwan’s fifth biggest trading partner. President Ma spoke about how a hotel business owner from Taiwan even recently bought a castle in Italy. He said that’s evidence of the strengthening and diversification of ties between the two countries.