The one glaring flunk mark on our foreign trade report card has long been our deficit with Last year, the figure bulged to nearly US$10 billion, or NT$13,000 per person, the highest per capita figure in the world, surpassing even that of the United States.
Neither erecting barriers nor tearing them down has been able to effectively stem the tide of Japanese goods flooding into the country. The only solution is to counterattack.
Under the joint auspices of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the China External Trade Development Council and other governmental agencies, a "Plan X" to break into the Japanese market is officially under way, which includes setting up a Taiwan Trade Center in Osaka to promote sales to Japan and launching a Mini-Europe Plan to ally with distant Europe to strike at nearby Japan.
This issue's special feature includes an overseas report on the new trade center in Osaka and interviews with Lin Ching-chih, president of Tahsin Shoji Co., which has successfully set up a branch there, and Dick Kitamura, executive vice president of the Osaka's Asia and Pacific Trade Center.
On the home front, in conjunction with our article on the Mini-Europe Plan, we present an interview with Chiang Ping-kun, political vice minister of economic affairs, in order to offer our readers the latest picture of the ROC- Japan trade situation.