Progress made in enhancing Taiwan’s bilateral ties with Singapore and New Zealand in the form of economic cooperation agreements would help the country secure a seat in the emerging Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade bloc, Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) said yesterday.
Yang called an informal press conference to highlight the significance of the announcement made in Taiwan and New Zealand on Tuesday that the two nations had started a feasibility study on a bilateral economic cooperation agreement.
New Zealand was one of several countries that had expressed an interest in signing economic pacts with Taiwan when the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) was negotiated, Yang said.
Yang said that New Zealand wishes to become the first country to sign a free-trade agreement with Taiwan after the ECFA was signed, which suggests that “New Zealand places great emphasis on the issue.”
Taiwan and Singapore began formal talks under the title “Agreement between Singapore and the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu on Economic Partnership” earlier this year after they completed a four-month study on the feasibility of such a deal.
In addition to Singapore and New Zealand, which were both among the four countries that conceived and launched the TPP in 2006 along with Chile and Brunei, Taiwan is also working with India and Indonesia on feasibility studies for similar economic agreements, Yang said, adding that the Philippines would be the next country to follow suit.
With the economic cooperation mechanisms with Singapore and New Zealand under negotiation, Taiwan would not only deepen bilateral relationships with its major trading partners other than China, but also significantly boost its chances of participating in regional economic integration, such as the TPP, Yang said.
Meanwhile, Yang said he expected a preliminary timetable for the signing of an open-skies agreement with Japan to liberalize bilateral commercial aviation exchanges to be set sometime in the middle of next month.
Japan called off the previously scheduled signing of the aviation pact on Sept. 27 at the last minute without offering specific reasons, but the two countries proceeded with the signing of an investment agreement as scheduled.
Yang said that Japan did not cancel the signing because of pressure from Beijing. The investment agreement would not have been signed if China had been a factor, he said.
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
TikTok abounds with viral videos accusing prestigious brands of secretly manufacturing luxury goods in China so they can be sold at cut prices. However, while these “revelations” are spurious, behind them lurks a well-oiled machine for selling counterfeit goods that is making the most of the confusion surrounding trade tariffs. Chinese content creators who portray themselves as workers or subcontractors in the luxury goods business claim that Beijing has lifted confidentiality clauses on local subcontractors as a way to respond to the huge hike in customs duties imposed on China by US President Donald Trump. They say this Chinese decision, of which Agence
RSS