Top negotiators from Taiwan and China plan to meet later this year for talks on a free trade agreement-like deal that would bring the two economies closer, a ruling party official said yesterday.
The negotiators will meet in Taiwan to talk about the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) after the nation holds local elections in early December, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Secretary-General Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said.
PROPOSED DEAL
The proposed deal would cut tariffs and allow a freer flow of goods between Taiwan, where the economy is sagging, and economic powerhouse China, the government has said.
“The talks will be an exchange of ideas with financial topics in the lead,” Wu said in an interview. “The question of ECFA will be discussed in its initial stages.”
The trade deal is crucial to keeping Taiwan competitive with other Asian economies that have signed similar deals with China, supporters said, but opponents say the deal could make the nation too dependent on its larger neighbor.
FOURTH MEETING
Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) from the Straits Exchange Foundation and his Chinese counterpart Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) will lead the two sides for the talks in December, their fourth meeting since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in May last year.
The People’s Republic of China has claimed sovereignty over Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s (毛澤東) Communists won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) KMT fled to Taiwan. Beijing has vowed to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
Taiwan’s exports soared 56 percent year-on-year to an all-time high of US$64.05 billion last month, propelled by surging global demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing and cloud service infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) called the figure an unexpected upside surprise, citing a wave of technology orders from overseas customers alongside the usual year-end shopping season for technology products. Growth is likely to remain strong this month, she said, projecting a 40 percent to 45 percent expansion on an annual basis. The outperformance could prompt the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
RSS