Australia and China will resume stalled free-trade talks this month despite tensions over the trial of an Australian mining executive in China, but agriculture remains a stumbling block, Australia’s trade minister said.
“The political will in my judgement is there,” Simon Crean said yesterday in announcing the resumption of free-trade agreement (FTA) talks in Canberra after a break of more than a year.
“The stumbling block still, in essence, remains the sensitivity surrounding agriculture. These are sensitivities that, I believe, we can address but we can’t ignore,” Crean told the Foreign Correspondents’ Association in Sydney.
“It is clearly impossible for Australia to accept an FTA outcome that is lesser than China has already offered to New Zealand when it comes to agriculture.”
Chinese state-owned companies are eager to buy into Australian mining assets to secure supplies of raw materials in its rapidly growing economy, the world’s third largest, and China wants more clarity on Australian foreign investment rules. But China is reluctant to open its market to Australian agriculture and the two have unresolved differences over the lack of strong rules to protect intellectual property in China.
China and Australia announced plans for a free trade deal in April 2005, but there have been no negotiations since the 13th round of talks in Beijing in December 2008.
China is Australia’s biggest trading partner, with two-way trade worth about A$76 billion (US$67.7 billion) in the year to June 30 and China buying more than A$25 billion in Australian iron ore and coal.
Relations between Australia and China plummeted last June over a failed bid by China’s state-owned Chinalco (中國鋁業) to buy a US$19.5 billion stake in mining company Rio Tinto.
China’s arrest of Australian Rio executive Stern Hu (胡士泰), who was indicted to stand trial last week on charges of bribery and stealing commercial secrets, has also strained ties.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
RSS