Taiwan has told ASEAN that it wants talks on a free trade agreement (FTA), a move likely to be blocked by China which is in the middle of its own negotiations.
"I would like to propose that ASEAN take the next logical step, to agree to form an ASEAN-Taiwan FTA," Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Chen Ruey-long (
Sidelined
Chen said on the sidelines he hoped for an agreement within a year, and did not see any reason why China should object as both countries were members of the WTO.
"The FTA is about economics and trade. China should not try to politicize this sort of agreement, that would be unfortunate," Chen said.
The move follows last year's agreement between China and ASEAN to start talks on creating the world's largest free-trade bloc.
ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Blocked by China
Most of Taiwan's efforts to join other global trade groups have been blocked by China. Experts doubt if Beijing would change its previous policies, adding it was difficult to tell how ASEAN nations would respond to Taiwan, which has invested US$42.2 billion in the region.
"Taiwan has sent messages to the ASEAN governments but we don't know their answer," said Wu Rong-yi (
Mirzan Mahathir, Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute of Malaysia president, said the process of trying to start an ASEAN trade deal with Taiwan would not be easy.
"I guess it will go through the normal turbulence that Taiwan and China usually face in these matters," he said.
Two-way trade between Tai-wan and ASEAN nations reached US$32.4 billion last year, or 13.35 percent of Taiwan's total global trade.
"For Taiwanese investors, ASEAN as a whole is our second largest destination for outbound investment only after China," Chen said.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is