No final arrangements have been made on a high-level cross-strait meeting because three core issues remain unresolved in bilateral talks over an investment protection agreement, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) said yesterday.
One of them concerns Taiwan’s multiple restrictions on Chinese investment, Shih said.
Although the WTO does not contain clear regulations on investment, member economies tend to include the so-called “national treatment” provision in their bilateral agreements to allow investors from both sides to enjoy equal treatment, Shih said.
“If the ‘national treatment’ provision is included in the proposed cross-strait investment pact, many of our current restrictions on Chinese investors could be legally challenged or need to be revised,” Shih said.
In order to maintain existing -restrictions or gradually phase them out, Shih said, more time would be needed for negotiations.
This marks the first time that the “national treatment” issue has been cited as a potential major obstacle to cross-strait negotiations.
At present, officials have only discussed differences of opinion regarding the protection of Taiwanese investors in China and the need for a mechanism to resolve disputes.
The seventh meeting between Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his Chinese counterpart Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), chairman of the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, was originally scheduled for mid-June.
On Wednesday, SEF Deputy Secretary-General Ma Shaw-chang (馬紹章) said the seventh “Chiang-Chen” meeting could take place next month at the earliest.
However, no timetable has yet been set because of the three issues, Shih said.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure