The UK seeks to discuss with the Taiwanese government the lifting of Taiwan's restrictions on government procurement and imports from China when the British trade minister visits Taipei next month, British Trade and Cultural Office Director Michael Reilly said on Thursday.
He said British Minister of State for Trade and Investment Lord Digby Jones would visit Taiwan next month to promote two-way trade and investment between the UK and Taiwan and to have discussions with local authorities in hopes that those restrictions can be lifted.
"Taiwan is quite an open market but there are a number of restrictions on trade that mean it's not as attractive a market as it could be," said Reilly, referring to regulations that basically restrict government procurement to Taiwanese firms.
Reilly said such a restriction is "very discriminatory."
Taiwan, which became member of the WTO in 2002, failed to join the Government Procurement Agreement under the WTO because of opposition from China.
Even if a foreign company sets up a branch office in Taiwan, employs Taiwanese people and pays tax in Taiwan, Reilly said, it is still not permitted to bid for government projects. In the UK, a Taiwanese company that sets up offices in the UK is allowed to bid for UK government contracts on the same basis as a UK company.
"We would like to see a bit of reciprocity in this area," he said, adding that "we would like to see UK companies that are registered in Taiwan treated on the same basis as Taiwanese companies."
Another issue of concern to many foreign companies is the ban on a wide range of imports from China, Reilly said, adding that all this does is lead to higher prices for Taiwanese consumers.
"Taiwanese are the biggest employers in mainland China rather than UK companies. So these restrictions actually make Taiwan lose out," he said, adding that "it does not affect the mainland. It does mean that Taiwan's economy suffers."
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
RSS