In response to strong criticism from the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei (ECCT), the Ministry of Finance is considering relaxing the customs regulations for wine imports set to be implemented in July.
The ministry's National Treasury Agency officials are scheduled to meet with ECCT representatives on Tuesday for further discussions.
The agency is also pushing for amendments to the Regulations Governing the Inspection of Imported Alcohol (進口酒類查驗辦法) to boost efficiency, said Patrick Cheng (鄭裕博), the agency's deputy director-general, during a press conference yesterday.
According to the draft regulations, imports of batches of "rare and expensive wine," which are not subject to testing by customs officials, were defined as being of a volume not exceeding 9 liters and with an average CIF quote per liter exceeding NT$8,000 (US$246).
CIF quotes refer to prices including cost, insurance and freight. Retail prices are usually double that value.
To address the ECCT's concerns, the finance ministry plans to loosen the definition of "rare and expensive wine" to include batches of 90 liters or less and average CIF quotes of NT$4,000 per liter or more.
However, this still falls short of the ECCT's expectations.
"We very much welcome the opportunity to talk with the finance ministry, but there seem to be huge differences between our proposal and theirs," Guy Wittich, the chamber's chief executive officer, told the Taipei Times yesterday.
The ECCT hopes to see the regulations relaxed further to allow for batches as large as 180 liters and average CIF quotes of NT$1,000 per liter.
"We hope the government will trust our market knowledge. Otherwise we foresee considerable impacts on wine imports," he said.
Wittich said some wine makers have already canceled orders to ship wine to Taiwan.
The chamber estimated in February that the new import regulations would reduce wine imports by 1.5 million bottles, cutting sales of wine by about NT$400 million a year, or around 5 percent of the market.
In addition, around 30 percent of brands would disappear from local shelves, Wittich said at the time.
The government could lose NT$500 million in tax revenue because consumers may simply smuggle wines from abroad, he said.
The ministry's regulations also stipulate that, from July, all imported liquor must feature certificates specifying methanol, sulphur dioxide and lead content.
The ECCT claims that these requirements constitute an unnecessary obstacle to trade, thereby violating WTO guidelines.
"These tests are not [mandatory] in Europe because good alcohol-making practice is enough to guarantee the quality and safety of the products," the ECCT said in its EuroView February-March issue.
Apple Inc has closed in on an agreement with OpenAI to use the start-up’s technology on the iPhone, part of a broader push to bring artificial intelligence (AI) features to its devices, people familiar with the matter said. The two sides have been finalizing terms for a pact to use ChatGPT features in Apple’s iOS 18, the next iPhone operating system, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the situation is private. Apple also has held talks with Alphabet Inc’s Google about licensing its Gemini chatbot. Those discussions have not led to an agreement, but are ongoing. An OpenAI
INSATIABLE: Almost all AI innovators are working with the chipmaker to address the rapidly growing AI-related demand for energy-efficient computing power, the CEO said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported about 60 percent annual growth in revenue for last month, benefiting from rapidly growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing applications. Revenue last month expanded to NT$236.02 billion (US$7.28 billion), compared with NT$147.9 billion in April last year, the second-highest level in company history, TSMC said in a statement. On a monthly basis, revenue surged 20.9 percent, from NT$195.21 billion in March. As AI-related applications continue to show strong growth, TSMC expects revenue to expand about 27.6 percent year-on-year during the current quarter to between US$19.6 billion and US$20.4 billion. That would
‘FULL SUPPORT’: Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said he hopes more companies would settle in the prefecture to create an area similar to Taiwan’s Hsinchu Science Park The newly elected governor of Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture said he is ready to ensure wide-ranging support to woo Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to build its third Japanese chip factory there. Concerns of groundwater shortages when TSMC’s two plants begin operations in the prefecture’s Kikuyo have spurred discussions about the possibility of tapping unused dam water, Kumamoto Governor Takashi Kimura said in an interview on Saturday. While Kimura said talks about a third plant have yet to occur, Bloomberg had reported TSMC is already considering its third Japanese fab — also in Kumamoto — which would make more advanced chips. “We are
Huawei Technologies Co’s (華為) latest high-end smartphone features more Chinese suppliers, including a new flash memory chip and an improved chip processor, a teardown analysis showed, pointing to the progress China is making toward technology self-sufficiency. The inside of Huawei’s Pura 70 Pro was examined by online tech repair company iFixit and consultancy TechSearch International, finding components made by Chinese suppliers. The firms also found that the Pura 70 phones run on an advanced processing chipset made by Chinese chip foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯) called the Kirin 9010, which is likely a slightly improved version of the advanced chip