Negotiations between Taiwan and China on a bilateral investment protection pact remain stalled by a failure to reach a consensus on a potential deal’s dispute arbitration mechanism, officials familiar with the issue said yesterday.
Negotiators held talks in Beijing on Sept. 8 and Sept. 9 to try to resolve differences on arbitrating trade and investment disputes and clear the way for the signing of the deal, which aims to protect hundreds of thousands of Taiwanese investors in China.
However, it remains uncertain whether the pact will be signed or if a seventh high-level meeting between the top cross-strait negotiators will be held later this month as scheduled.
PUSH ON
In a push to get a pact that can be signed later this month, representatives will continue to negotiate this week.
If they fail to reach an understanding, the talks between Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) would be put off again, officials said.
The two sides have reached a general agreement on a personal safety protection deal that would require the foundation and families of Taiwanese businesspeople detained in China for suspected involvement in a crime to be informed within 24 hours of the detention.
However, the investment protection deal has been more difficult to achieve.
Taiwan has proposed that disputes between Taiwanese investors and the Chinese government should be arbitrated by agencies such as the International Chamber of Commerce.
However, China wants to treat any disputes as a domestic matter and avoid using international arbitration entities.
Taiwanese officials, who declined to be named, said Taiwan has not ruled out accepting mediation rather than arbitration to resolve disputes, but they said whatever mechanism was adopted had to be enforceable in case local Chinese governments ignore mediation results.
RESERVATIONS
While Wang Yi (王毅), director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said last week that the chances of signing a pact were “unquestionably optimistic,” the Taiwanese officials were more reserved, saying whatever was agreed upon during negotiations needed to be signed before it could be considered a real deal.
Leading Taiwanese bicycle brands Giant Manufacturing Co (巨大機械) and Merida Industry Co (美利達工業) on Sunday said that they have adopted measures to mitigate the impact of the tariff policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration. The US announced at the beginning of this month that it would impose a 20 percent tariff on imported goods made in Taiwan, effective on Thursday last week. The tariff would be added to other pre-existing most-favored-nation duties and industry-specific trade remedy levy, which would bring the overall tariff on Taiwan-made bicycles to between 25.5 percent and 31 percent. However, Giant did not seem too perturbed by the
Foxconn Technology Co (鴻準精密), a metal casing supplier owned by Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), yesterday announced plans to invest US$1 billion in the US over the next decade as part of its business transformation strategy. The Apple Inc supplier said in a statement that its board approved the investment on Thursday, as part of a transformation strategy focused on precision mold development, smart manufacturing, robotics and advanced automation. The strategy would have a strong emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI), the company added. The company said it aims to build a flexible, intelligent production ecosystem to boost competitiveness and sustainability. Foxconn
TARIFF CONCERNS: Semiconductor suppliers are tempering expectations for the traditionally strong third quarter, citing US tariff uncertainty and a stronger NT dollar Several Taiwanese semiconductor suppliers are taking a cautious view of the third quarter — typically a peak season for the industry — citing uncertainty over US tariffs and the stronger New Taiwan dollar. Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科技) said that customers accelerated orders in the first half of the year to avoid potential tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump’s administration. As a result, it anticipates weaker-than-usual peak-season demand in the third quarter. The US tariff plan, announced on April 2, initially proposed a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese goods. Its implementation was postponed by 90 days to July 9, then
AI SERVER DEMAND: ‘Overall industry demand continues to outpace supply and we are expanding capacity to meet it,’ the company’s chief executive officer said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported that net profit last quarter rose 27 percent from the same quarter last year on the back of demand for cloud services and high-performance computing products. Net profit surged to NT$44.36 billion (US$1.48 billion) from NT$35.04 billion a year earlier. On a quarterly basis, net profit grew 5 percent from NT$42.1 billion. Earnings per share expanded to NT$3.19 from NT$2.53 a year earlier and NT$3.03 in the first quarter. However, a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar since early May has weighed on the company’s performance, Hon Hai chief financial officer David Huang (黃德才)
RSS