The newly inked free-trade agreement with Singapore is expected to help the nation move closer to talks on joining the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), while reducing the risk of the nation’s growing trade ties with China, industry bodies said yesterday.
“Singapore, as a member of RCEP, will help secure a seat for Taiwan when the nation seeks to join the regional economy in Southeast Asia,” General Chamber of Commerce (全國商業總會) chairman Lawrence Chang (張平沼) said by telephone.
After three years of discussions and negotiations, the Agreement between Singapore and the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu on Economic Partnership — abbreviated as ASTEP — was concluded yesterday in Singapore.
The agreement lowers tariffs for trade in goods, opens the two countries’ service markets and optimizes the environment for foreign investment on both sides.
“This [signing of the ASTEP] is a very positive outcome,” Chang said. “It’s better to think of ASTEP as a starting point for Taiwan to join RCEP, and with the pack inked, the possibility [for Taiwan to become a member of RCEP] seems higher than ever.”
Taipei-based Chinese National Federation of Industries (全國工業總會) secretary-general Tsai Lien-sheng (蔡練生) said Taiwan should speed up talks to join more regional economic blocs to avoid being marginalized.
While the cross-strait service trade agreement is still pending legislative approval, Tsai urged legislators to approve the ASTEP as quickly as they did the trade deal with New Zealand because “there is no time to waste.”
Echoing Chang’s view, Tsai said globalization has prompted many countries to accelerate their attempts to join either RCEP or the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and he believes the signing of the ASTEP may be a step toward Taiwan joining the RCEP.
“Once Taiwan becomes a member of RCEP, its reliance on China will lessen,” Tsai said.
National Chengchi University professor Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said the current cross-strait political situation remains the biggest issue to the nation’s trade and economic strategies.
“The ASTEP, after all, helps Taiwanese firms stand at a better position to compete with others in the global market, though the benefit is not material,” Tung said.
The signing of the ASTEP is an expected result of the approach of the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
“ECFA first, before other trade pacts,” Tung said.
“It’s hard to draw a clear connection between the signing of the ECFA and the ASTEP, and if there is, it doesn’t mean anything,” Tung said. “Making the ECFA the government’s priority is a risky strategy.”
Hong Kong-based Credit Suisse economist Christiaan Tuntono said the progress Taiwan has made so far with Singapore and New Zealand will help it make a step toward joining the TPP, of which the US is also a member.
“This shall bring visible economic benefits to Taiwan,” Tuntono said in a note yesterday. “We believe the symbolic meaning of ASTEP is great, as it represents another significant step by Taiwan in lessening the looming threat of trade marginalisation that has been weighing on the economy structurally.”
RECYCLE: Taiwan would aid manufacturers in refining rare earths from discarded appliances, which would fit the nation’s circular economy goals, minister Kung said Taiwan would work with the US and Japan on a proposed cooperation initiative in response to Beijing’s newly announced rare earth export curbs, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. China last week announced new restrictions requiring companies to obtain export licenses if their products contain more than 0.1 percent of Chinese-origin rare earths by value. US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent on Wednesday responded by saying that Beijing was “unreliable” in its rare earths exports, adding that the US would “neither be commanded, nor controlled” by China, several media outlets reported. Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato yesterday also
Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), founder and CEO of US-based artificial intelligence chip designer Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday celebrated the first Nvidia Blackwell wafer produced on US soil. Huang visited TSMC’s advanced wafer fab in the US state of Arizona and joined the Taiwanese chipmaker’s executives to witness the efforts to “build the infrastructure that powers the world’s AI factories, right here in America,” Nvidia said in a statement. At the event, Huang joined Y.L. Wang (王英郎), vice president of operations at TSMC, in signing their names on the Blackwell wafer to
‘DRAMATIC AND POSITIVE’: AI growth would be better than it previously forecast and would stay robust even if the Chinese market became inaccessible for customers, it said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday raised its full-year revenue growth outlook after posting record profit for last quarter, despite growing market concern about an artificial intelligence (AI) bubble. The company said it expects revenue to expand about 35 percent year-on-year, driven mainly by faster-than-expected demand for leading-edge chips for AI applications. The world’s biggest contract chipmaker in July projected that revenue this year would expand about 30 percent in US dollar terms. The company also slightly hiked its capital expenditure for this year to US$40 billion to US$42 billion, compared with US$38 billion to US$42 billion it set previously. “AI demand actually
RARE EARTHS: The call between the US Treasury Secretary and his Chinese counterpart came as Washington sought to rally G7 partners in response to China’s export controls China and the US on Saturday agreed to conduct another round of trade negotiations in the coming week, as the world’s two biggest economies seek to avoid another damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle. Beijing last week announced sweeping controls on the critical rare earths industry, prompting US President Donald Trump to threaten 100 percent tariffs on imports from China in retaliation. Trump had also threatened to cancel his expected meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea later this month on the sidelines of the APEC summit. In the latest indication of efforts to resolve their dispute, Chinese state media reported that
RSS