Taiwan risks being marginalized as free-trade negotiations and deals among major economies leave the nation isolated, a conference organised at the Legislative Yuan and attended by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers, academics and industrialists has heard.
The event comes as high-level talks aimed at establishing a free-trade deal between South Korea and China intensified and the US-South Korea Free-trade Agreement (FTA) — which took effect on March 15 — begins to impact Taiwan’s economy.
The conference — organized by KMT Legislators Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) and Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) — was told that since its accession to the WTO in 2002, the nation had failed to prepare for further international trade liberalization, resulting in it falling behind in the race to secure FTAs.
Secretary-General of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce, Taiwan, John Chang (張炯昌), called for the establishment of a Cabinet-level task force to handle external trade negotiations. This aspect of foreign trade is currently undertaken by the Office of Trade Negotiation at the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
Having traveled with several official delegations to lobby the EU to prioritize free-trade between Taiwan and the 27-member economic bloc, Chang said that the government needed to “proactively take steps” to make the country into a desirable country to negotiate free-trade partnerships.
Jake Chia (賈大駿), an advisor to the General Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of China, reiterated Chang’s view, saying that “except for the Ministry of Economic Affairs, not all government agencies understand the importance of trade liberalization to Taiwan.”
Trade liberalization is not just an economic issue, but also involves problems that need coordination and the relaxation of trading rules to be resolved, Chia said.
Ku Ying-hua (顧瑩華), a research fellow at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, said that in terms of its ability to compete in the increasingly globalized market, Taiwan has been losing ground South Korea over the past 10 to 12 years.
Within that timeframe, Ku said, South Korea has signed eight free-trade deals with key economies, including the US, the EU, ASEAN and India, and currently these deals account for 35.3 percent of South Korea’s total foreign trade.
Taiwan has so far signed free-trade agreements with five of its allied Central American states, but the trade volume with these countries accounts for less than 0.2 percent of Taiwan’s total foreign trade, she said.
Ku added that Taiwan will face tougher challenges when China and South Korea conclude their free-trade agreement — expected in two years — and when China, Japan and South Korea establish an east Asia trading block.
Chiang lamented the slow progress in the country’s engagement with global trading partners over the past decade and said “marginalization is not only a worry, but a fact that has happened.”
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San