A US Trade Representative Office (USTR) spokesman said on Tuesday that the US has continued to work with Taiwan on a number of trade issues.
Richard Mills made the remarks during a regular press conference when he was asked whether the USTR, in its annual review next March or April, will remove Taiwan from its priority watch list compiled according to the special 301 provisions of the 1989 US Omnibus Trade Acts regarding intellectual property rights protection.
Taiwan has been placed on the priority watch list for the last three straight years because the US says nation has not made sufficient efforts in the protection of intellectual property rights.
"Taiwan is an important trading partner of the US, and we will continue to work with them on a number of issues related to intellectual property rights and other areas to make sure that Americans are treated fairly," he said.
On questions about Taiwan-US talks on lifting the nation's ban on US beef imports imposed after the appearance of a case of mad cow disease in Washington State in December last year, and on whether the US will re-open to Taiwan chicken imports, Mills didn't give a specific timetable, saying only that both sides have continued to communicate on these issues.
The US Department of Agriculture recently said that Taiwan has agreed in principle to resume imports of US beef and beef products. Taiwanese health and agriculture officials are currently in the US to inspect the major features and implementation of US safeguards against mad cow disease, or bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained