Business Briefs

■ Guatemala FTA imminent

Taiwan is expected to sign a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Guatemala this year, as the two sides have completed a second round of FTA negotiations in Guatemala City late last month, James Wu (吳新華), deputy director of Bureau of Foreign Trade, told the Taipei Times yesterday. "The progress is ahead of schedule," Wu said. During the second-round talks, the two countries have reached consensus on 90 percent of the agreement's articles and clauses, including tax breaks on agri-cultural and industrial goods and market access to the service sector, Wu said. The third round of FTA talks is scheduled to be held in Los Angeles starting June 6, he said. One major issue to be discussed in the next round is signing a cooperation agreement on shipping and air cargo between Taiwan and Guatemala to help boost the nation's logistics sector, Wu said. The delegation is confident that the remaining issues will be resolved in the third round of negotiations, making Guatemala Taiwan's second FTA partner after Panama, Wu said.

■ FSC to reduce interest gap

The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday agreed to narrow the gap between revolving credit rates and rates paid on savings accounts by amending the Banking Law (銀行法), the commission's Vice Chairman Lu Daung-yen (呂東英) said at a press conference. Local banks are under mounting pressure to reduce the gap amid allegations of overcharging consumers, with revolving credit rates starting as high as 20 percent. The savings rate now stands at around 2 percent at major banks, while the revolving credit rate applicable to both credit cards and cash-advance cards hovers at around 20 percent. People First Party Legislator Christine Liu (劉憶如) said the gap between revolving rates and savings rates is around 9 percent in the US, whereas the gap is about 18 percent in Taiwan.