Taiwan and the US have agreed to begin negotiations on cooperation in the area of e-commerce, a development that can be seen as a precursor to the resumption of bilateral talks under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), Minister without Portfolio Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) said in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Taiwan and the US signed the TIFA in September 1994, but Washington has suspended bilateral talks under this framework several times since 1998.
The e-commerce cooperation negotiations between the two countries are likely to serve as stepping-stone to TIFA talks, Yiin said.
Since Taiwan signed the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) with China, it has been stepping up efforts to forge free-trade agreements (FTA) with other countries, Yiin said.
Earlier this month, it reached an agreement with Singapore to explore the possibility of signing an economic cooperation agreement.
At the APEC ministerial meetings, Taiwan’s proposal to start FTA talks with other countries has been warmly received, Yiin said.
Meanwhile, Taiwan and China have agreed to start negotiations on agreements on trade in products and services as well as investment and dispute resolution within six months after the ECFA takes effect, he said.
The arrangements for trade in goods and services “should not be too difficult” given that 20 to 30 percent of products in Taiwan and China have already been granted tariff-free treatment under the ECFA and the fact that most information technology products are also eligible for zero tariffs under the WTO framework.
In the area of investment, there is no big difference of opinion between Taiwan and China, he said.
Addressing fears that certain local industries would suffer as a result of the ECFA, Yiin said that the government would stick to its promise to delay further trade liberalization in some areas to give vulnerable industries time to adjust and upgrade.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day