Businesses and consumers to benefit as Minister visits Taiwan to boost investment and exports following Trade Strategy
- Visit follows the UK Trade Strategy published this week focused on aligning trade policy with growth-driving sectors.
- Emerging sectors to benefit as Trade Minister Douglas Alexander to witness signing of the UK-Taiwan Enhanced Trade Partnership pillars.
- Trade talks to take place chaired by Minister Alexander alongside Deputy Minister Cynthia Kiang, Ministry of Economic Affairs.
UK exporters will benefit from better access to a key global market as the UK Trade Minister Douglas Alexander visits Taiwan for the 27th round of annual UK-Taiwan trade talks [29 – 30 June].
The visit is part of the UK’s longstanding unofficial relationship with Taiwan and aimed at boosting bilateral trade, worth £9.3 billion in 2024. It comes a week after the Government announced a new landmark Trade Strategy to secure UK business and trading relationships in a changing world.
Minister Alexander will reinforce that Britain is open for business as part of this Government’s Plan for Change to deliver on its core mission to grow the economy and raise living standards.
Emerging sectors can look forward to modernised trade with Taiwan thanks to the successful conclusion of the UK-Taiwan digital trade pilot, swapping out paper-based systems for digital data exchange to boost efficiency.
The Minister – whose brief covers economic security as well as trade – will also witness the signing of our Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP) Pillars on Investment, Digital Trade, Energy and Net Zero.
Trade Minister Douglas Alexander said:
We share a long-standing trade relationship with Taiwan and our trade reached an all-time high last year, but we know there are still more opportunities for British businesses to take advantage of opportunities in this dynamic economy.
The new Enhanced Trade Partnership Pillars will help us boost trade in some of our growth-driving sectors, delivering economic growth and helping put more money in people’s pockets as part of the Plan for Change.
Ahead of the Minister’s visit, digital trade pilots were completed with UK water company Clas-SIC Wafer Fab as well as the Kimbland Distillery in Orkney and Scotch company Skene Whiskey as the UK looks to streamline trade with Taiwan.
Taiwan was the world’s 22nd largest economy in 2024 and is a global leader in growth driving sectors like Digital Tech and Advanced Manufacturing, creating opportunities that align with the UK’s commercial and strategic strengths.
The Trade talks, which have been held since 1991, along with the ETP, aim to further enhance trade, investment, and economic cooperation between the UK and Taiwan.
The visit follows the recent publication of the UK’s Trade Strategy which will see the UK focus on sectors which deliver the most economic growth.
The Minister will also meet with President Lai as part of the UK’s long-standing unofficial relationship with Taiwan.
The ETP signing will take place between the British Representative Taipei, Ruth Bradley-Jones, and the Representative at the Taipei Representative Office, Vincent Chin-Hsiang Yao.
