Call for Canberra to resume ministerial visits to Taiwan after decade-long snub

A heavyweight Taiwanese business delegation has arrived in Australia amid calls for the Albanese government to visit Taipei.

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas with Dr Yensen Chen from Taiwan, CEO and founder ATSpace, with a Kestrel 1 hybrid rocket at Adelaide Convention Centre. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Naomi Jellicoe

The chair of the Australia-Taiwan Business Council has called for the Albanese government to overturn Australia’s decade-long black-listing of ministerial visits to Taiwan.

John Toigo, Chairman of the Australia-Taiwan Business Council, made the call to restore political engagement in an interview to mark the arrival of the first major business delegation from Taiwan since 2019.

On Friday, the Australia-Taiwan Business Council and their reciprocal group from Taiwan held their first in-person joint meeting in three years.

The more than 50 strong Taiwanese delegation arrived in Sydney as Britain’s Minister of State for Trade Policy Greg Hands visited Taiwan, a level of political engagement ruled out by Canberra’s extreme caution about upsetting China.

During his trip, the British Minister met with Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen, Trade Minister John Deng, Economic Minister Wang Mei-hua and Digital Minister Audrey Tang.

“Taiwan’s importance to the Australian economy, I’m sure, significantly outweighs its importance to the UK’s economy,” said Mr Toigo, a partner at law firm Sparke Helmore.

“If the Brits can do it, why can’t the Aussies?”

Taiwan climbed to be Australia’s fifth-largest goods export market and seventh-largest two-way trading partner in 2021-22. Two-way merchandise trade has grown to $32.6bn.

Despite the lack of ministerial attention, Taiwan’s trading relationship with Australia continues to boom — buoyed by rising energy prices and a surge of exports banned by China.

This week’s delegation included a site visit to green hydrogen projects in the Illawarra. Securing new sources of clean energy is a key priority for Taiwan, a major energy importer.

Australia — currently Taiwan’s top supplier of energy — is trying to make sure it is part of that transition, as it is for a similar switch taking place in Japan, South Korea and China.

In a video message to Friday’s conference, Assistant Trade Minister Tim Ayres said there was a lot of potential to broaden and deepen the economic relationship.

“The Australian government hopes to expand co-operation in areas such as biomedicine, renewable energy, circular economy and recycling, energy storage, tourism infrastructure, education, agriculture, food and financial services,” he said.

As it has been for more than a decade, an Australian-Taiwan trade pact was top of the wish list for many who attended Friday’s 35th Australia-Taiwan Business Councils Joint Conference.

Taiwan is the only one of Australia’s top 10 trade partners with which it doesn’t have a free-trade agreement for fear of upsetting Beijing. New Zealand and Singapore both have free trade agreements with Taiwan.

Mr Toigo said there had been no indication that this would change under the Albanese government, despite Trade Minister Don Farrell’s commitment to diversify trade away from China.

“The retort we get from the Australian government, when we talk about things like free trade agreements or economic co-operation agreements, is that it’s a question of when, not if,” Mr Toigo told The Weekend Australian.

“But that sort of line has been going on for a good many years, and there doesn’t seem to be any traction whatsoever on that. We just think the government should get on with it.”

Craig Emerson’s 2012 visit to Kaohsiung in Taiwan’s south was the last by an Australian trade minister. No Australian ministers visited Taiwan during the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments, a snub keenly felt in Taipei.