Taiwan conducted several bilateral meetings with its APEC counterparts yesterday on a variety of issues, Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (
In particular, during talks with WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, Ho said she has expressed the government's hope to be included in the WTO's Government Procurement Agreement (GPA), as Taiwan made the promise as a condition of its WTO entry to accede to the pact one year after accession, but it has yet to be approved by other members.
Ho said Taiwan has talked with trade officials from the US, Canada, Vietnam and Indonesia over issues such as beef imports, industrial cooperation and easing trade and investment barriers. It will also arrange bilateral meetings with other countries which are still under negotiation, she said.
Reopening Taiwan to beef imports from the US is a main concern of US officials, but Ho said the decision is up to the Department of Health.
Given the huge number of Taiwanese investments in Vietnam, Ho called on Vietnamese officials to remove trade obstacles for Taiwanese companies doing business in that country.
She also said the 21 economics ministers at the APEC meeting had endorsed a joint statement renewing their commitment to establishing a free-trade area in the region by 2020.
Although some APEC ministers have said next month's WTO talks in Hong Kong would collapse if the EU did not make a bigger cut in its farm subsidies, Ho said APEC members hope to adopt "sectoral tariff reductions" as a way to move forward the negotiations.
For example, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and the US have agreed to cut tariffs to zero on integrated circuit modules used in electronics and telecommunications products, she said.
In related news, Teco Group (
Huang told reporters that he would propose the realization of direct cross-strait transportation at a group meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (
He said he would also probe Hu's intentions toward inking a free-trade pact with Taiwan.
Lin Hsin-yi (
Lin is staying at the same hotel as Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽) shares surged to a seven-month high this week after local media reported that E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) had outbid CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) in the financially strained insurer’s ongoing sale process. Shares of the mid-sized life insurer climbed 5.8 percent this week to NT$6.72, extending a nearly 18 percent rally over the past month, as investors bet on the likelihood of an impending takeover. The final round of bidding closed on Thursday, marking a critical step in the 32-year-old insurer’s search for a buyer after years of struggling to meet capital adequacy requirements. Local media reports
US sports leagues rushed to get in on the multi-billion US dollar bonanza of legalized betting, but the arrest of an National Basketball Association (NBA) coach and player in two sprawling US federal investigations show the potential cost of partnering with the gambling industry. Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, a former Detroit Pistons star and an NBA Hall of Famer, was arrested for his alleged role in rigged illegal poker games that prosecutors say were tied to Mafia crime families. Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier was charged with manipulating his play for the benefit of bettors and former NBA player and
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
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