Foreign Trade Development of Taiwan

In recent years, there saw a rapid expansion of trade by the Republic of China on Taiwan. The volume of trade has been growing continuously over the years, but the upswing since 1963 has been particularly fast. The average annual rate of growth of trade during the ten year period of 1957-1967 was 14.0 per cent. This has been growing more rapidly than that of the gross national product. Therefore, foreign trade has in effect been the major driving force behind Taiwan\u27s expanding economy. Taiwan has an island economy. Because of limited resources and narrow market at home, Taiwan heavily relies on international trade. It is, therefore, the purpose of this study to present and discuss the real situation of Taiwan\u27s foreign trade; how the development of foreign trade affects Taiwan\u27s economy; and the present government foreign trade policy. As a result of this study, some practicable suggestions are made to the policy makers for future reference. During the period of 1957 to 1967, Taiwan\u27s foreign trade has undergone a great expansion as the result of conspicuous change in trade pattern and market. So this study places emphasis on the discussion of Taiwan’s foreign trade from 1957 to 1967. Most of the materials pertaining to this study were obtained from Foreign Exchange and Trade Commission in Taiwan