2022 UK-Taiwan Trade Talks Business Survey

Taiwan – the world’s 21st largest economy – is the UK’s 8th largest trading partner in the Asia Pacific region. Promoting two-way trade and investment links between the UK and Taiwan is at the heart of the British Office’s work in Taiwan.

The British Office holds regular discussions with the Taiwanese authorities focusing on how to enhance trade and investment ties and tackle market access issues and those relating to the wider business environment. At the highest level are the UK-Taiwan Trade Talks, which take place annually between the Department for International Trade in the UK and the Ministry of Economic Affairs in Taiwan. The 25th round is planned for October 2022. Additionally, there are a series of sectoral dialogues between the UK and Taiwan covering agriculture, energy and intellectual property rights. We anticipate this list may grow in future; for instance there is already a nascent health dialogue, which while focussed for the moment primarily on policy areas, may come to have a commercial dimension in time.

This survey aims to ascertain UK companies' views on priority areas for engagement to support their operations in Taiwan, as well as their business outlook in Taiwan, especially in the context of the economic impact of COVID-19 and other key events both regional and global. We will publish the survey results, and have discussions with you at business engagement events. All results will be presented in an anonymised way.

Your responses will directly inform conversations we have with Taiwan, including at Ministerial level, about the real issues you face in your day to day business.
NB: Please do engage with this exercise and, where applicable, be as full in your responses as you can. Those who have participated before may be tempted to ask “why are they asking me that again? I’ve told them in previous years”. The answer is that, while every round of trade talks makes tangible progress on which we will continue to keep you informed, there is still value each year in having a comprehensive account of your remaining concerns: not least so we can judge for ourselves whether what seems to us to have been progress, actually is from your (crucial) point of view as our customers. Rather than cross something off the list prematurely as “done”, if you judge it hasn’t happened or needs a further push then we need to know that.

The survey will be open from 15 June to 15 July. We will publish the survey results with the findings presented in an anonymised way.