Lawmakers yesterday said they fear the nation could be further isolated in the region after China signed an agreement with 10 Southeast Asian nations to pursue a free trade pact.
With the countries agreeing to create a free-trade area with China, Taiwan could be ``marginalized'' in the region, said opposition lawmaker Pang Chien-kuo (
China and the ASEAN agreed Monday on a timetable to bring down tariffs and stimulate investment. They said they will conclude their negotiations by mid-2004.
Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (林義夫) said Taiwan's efforts to bolster ties with countries in the region "have fallen behind schedule" because China has blocked the island from joining regional organizations.
China has also opposed Asian countries signing free-trade agreements with Taiwan.
"Given the current political environment, it would be difficult for us to pursue a similar agreement with the ASEAN as a block," Lin said. ``Our strategy is to pursue separate pacts with individual nations."
The minister said Taiwan is discussing signing free-trade pacts with Japan and Singapore, but declined to give details on the negotiations. Taiwan will continue to encourage its businesses to invest in Southeast Asia, he said.
Taiwanese officials said a free-trade agreement between China and ASEAN could hurt Taiwanese exports to the area. But they added that many Taiwanese companies have operations in both China and Southeast Asia and could benefit from the tariff reductions.
While pursuing free-trade deals, Taiwan has also sought to join regional forums.
Annual bilateral trade between ASEAN and Taiwan is about NT$1.25 trillion (US$36 billion) a year.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last