Professor Chen Po-chih of National Taiwan University's economics department, a former chairman of the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), supports the idea of setting up free ports because he sees it as a way to overcome some of the adverse effects of the poor state of cross-strait relations.
前經建會主委、台大經濟系教授陳博志，則以「兩岸關係」作為支持設置自由貿易區的論點。