Taiwanese trade officials are directing their lobbying efforts at the US business community in an attempt to drum up support for the early signing of a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) said on Sunday.
Chen made the remarks while talking about the government's efforts to secure an FTA with the US the day after his arrival in New York on a transit stop, after taking part in a second round of FTA negotiations between Taiwan and El Salvador and Honduras in San Francisco.
As the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement came into effect this year, the government is working to sign FTAs with Central American states as part of its efforts to help Taiwanese manufacturers make inroads into the US market, Chen said.
Chen said that many countries, including Taiwan, are eager to enter FTAs with the US, but the US government is focusing its efforts on WTO talks and the formation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). As a result, whether the US will sign FTAs with other trade partners will depend on whether bilateral trade relations are close enough.
Because of the complex Taiwan-US-China political relations, Taiwan has failed to make much progress in its FTA talks with the US, Chen said. However, he claimed that the government's determination and efforts to secure a Taiwan-US FTA "will not be affected" by any unfavorable conditions.
Noting that the Ministry of Economic Affairs has made FTA talks with the US a top priority for this year, Chen said Taiwan is doing everything possible to win the US industrial and business sector's support for signing an FTA.
Touching on the second round of FTA talks with El Salvador and Honduras, Chen said the talks went smoothly and that this was Taiwan's first simultaneous FTA consultation with two nations.
Following a series of intensive trilateral negotiations in San Francisco, trade officials from Taiwan, El Salvador and Honduras have reached a consensus on all FTA provisions, Chen said, adding that after the completion of a third round of FTA talks in Honduras in September, the three countries will be able to ink FTAs by the year's end.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Taiwanese prosecutors suspect that three people successfully smuggled at least one shipment of Nvidia Corp artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China after first exporting them to Japan, people familiar with the matter said. The trio was detained last week by the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office for allegedly falsifying documents related to exports of Super Micro Computer Inc servers containing advanced Nvidia chips, which the US has barred from sale to China without a license from Washington. The move marked Taiwan’s first public crackdown on AI chip diversion after years of pressure from the US to take a more active role in curtailing
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) employee bonuses are likely to grow more than 30 percent this year, in line with the past few years as the company’s profits continue to set new records, an anonymous source cited TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) as saying yesterday. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is committed to taking care of its workers, the source said, citing Wei’s meeting with employees yesterday morning. Wei also expressed gratitude to employees for their contribution to the company’s improving bottom line, the source added. Since 2023, TSMC’s employee bonuses have grown at an annual rate of
RSS