It is my pleasure to invite you to a roundtable discussion on an EU-Taiwan trade on Thursday, 9 March, from 12h30 – 14h30.

This sandwich lunch discussion will feature Prof. Dr. Markus Taube from University of Duisburg-Essen, the co-author of a study on an “EU-Taiwan Resilient Supply Chain Agreement”, Adeline Hinderer, Head of Unit ‘Far East’ of DG Trade, and Benedikt Wiedenhofer, Advisor at Business Europe. It will be held at the Representation of North Rhine Westphalia in Rue Montoyer 47 in Brussels.

While Taiwan does not feature in the latest EU Commission Trade Policy Review from 2021, the European Parliament has continuously called on the European Commission to explore possibilities for a Bilateral Investment Agreement between the EU and Taiwan. As these efforts are, however, stalling for the time being, the Greens/EFA group in the EP decided to explore other pathways towards enhanced economic relations between the EU and Taiwan. We commissioned a scoping study for a Resilient Supply Chain Agreement between the EU and Taiwan by Prof. Dr. Jörn-Carsten Gottwald (Ruhr-University Bochum), Prof. Dr. Steffi Weil (Antwerp Management School/University of Antwerp) and Prof. Dr. Markus Taube (University of Duisburg-Essen). This study explores in particular three areas of possible cooperation and gives hands-on recommendations on how to take this further.

We are very pleased that one of authors of the study, Prof. Dr. Markus Taube, will come to Brussels on Thursday, 9 March, to present the main findings. We are very happy also that Adeline Hinderer from DG Trade and Benedikt Wiedenhofer from Business Europe have agreed to give their response to the study. In the discussion afterwards, a moderated debate will allow to go into further detail.

Please join us for this event in person (limited seating available) or online. Kindly register here for the event by 7 March, 2023.

I look forward to fruitful discussions!

Best regards

Reinhard Bütikofer