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.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
Nintendo Co hopes to match the runaway success of the Switch when its leveled-up new console hits shelves on Thursday, with strong early sales expected despite the gadget’s high price. Featuring a bigger screen and more processing power, the Switch 2 is an upgrade to its predecessor, which has sold 152 million units since launching in 2017 — making it the third-best-selling video game console of all time. However, despite buzz among fans and robust demand for pre-orders, headwinds for Nintendo include uncertainty over US trade tariffs and whether enough people are willing to shell out. The Switch 2 “is priced relatively high”
RSS