The US, EU and 12 other governments in the WTO have opened negotiations on a trade deal aimed at ending tariffs on environmental goods such as wind turbines and solar panels.
The WTO members participating in the talks announced yesterday in Geneva account for 86 percent of global trade in the products, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said.
The US exported US$106 billion in goods such as turbines, solar panels and filters to treat wastewater last year, the USTR said.
US President Barack Obama’s administration is beginning initiatives to damp the effects of climate change and getting started on the accord is part of that effort, the USTR said.
The administration on June 2 proposed standards to cut greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants, a step that rankled members of the nation’s Republican Party and utility companies that use coal-fired generators that release carbon dioxide to make electricity.
“Today’s launch of the Environmental Goods Agreement underscores environmental protection on all fronts,” US Trade Representative Michael Froman said in a statement.
The agreement may also help US exporters gain from the burgeoning international market for clean-energy goods.
The US, Taiwan, China and the 28-nation EU are among participants in the talks that have been ensnared in trade disputes over solar-energy equipment in recent years.
According to the US trade office, tariffs on environmental goods can be as high as 35 percent of the value of the products.
The nations that participate in Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings have agreed to cut tariffs on 54 environmental products by 5 percent by the end of next year.
The governments involved in the talks intend to expand the list, which includes solar panels, catalytic converters and waste incinerators, according to a fact sheet. Froman notified the US Congress on March 21 of the administration’s intention to participate in the accord.
In addition to the US, Taiwan, China, and the EU, the WTO members in talks are Australia, Canada, Costa Rica, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore and Switzerland.
WASHINGTON’S INCENTIVES: The CHIPS Act set aside US$39 billion in direct grants to persuade the world’s top semiconductor companies to make chips on US soil The US plans to award more than US$6 billion to Samsung Electronics Co, helping the chipmaker expand beyond a project in Texas it has already announced, people familiar with the matter said. The money from the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act would be one of several major awards that the US Department of Commerce is expected to announce in the coming weeks, including a grant of more than US$5 billion to Samsung’s rival, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), people familiar with the plans said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the official announcements. The federal funding for
HIGH DEMAND: The firm has strong capabilities of providing key components including liquid cooling technology needed for AI servers, chairman Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday revised its revenue outlook for this year to “significant” growth from a “neutral” view forecast five months ago, due to strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers from cloud service providers. Hon Hai, a major assembler of iPhones that is also known as Foxconn, expects AI server revenues to soar more than 40 percent annually this year, chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) told investors. The robust growth would uplift revenue contribution from AI servers to 40 percent of the company’s overall server revenue this year, from 30 percent last year, Liu said. In the three-year period
LONG HAUL: Largan Energy Materials’ TNO-based lithium-ion batteries are expected to charge in five minutes and last about 20 years, far surpassing conventional technology Largan Precision Co (大立光) has formed a joint venture with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI, 工研院) to produce fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, mobile electronics and electric storage units, the camera lens supplier for Apple Inc’s iPhones said yesterday. Largan Energy Materials Co (萬溢能源材料), established in January, is developing high-energy, fast-charging, long-life lithium-ion batteries using titanium niobium oxide (TNO) anodes, it said. TNO-based batteries can be fully charged in five minutes and have a lifespan of 20 years, a major advantage over the two to four hours of charging time needed for conventional graphite-anode-based batteries, Largan said in a
Taiwan is one of the first countries to benefit from the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, but because that is largely down to a single company it also represents a risk, former Google Taiwan managing director Chien Lee-feng (簡立峰) said at an AI forum in Taipei yesterday. Speaking at the forum on how generative AI can generate possibilities for all walks of life, Chien said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — currently among the world’s 10 most-valuable companies due to continued optimism about AI — ensures Taiwan is one of the economies to benefit most from AI. “This is because AI is