Membership in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement is a matter of “life and death” for Taiwan, former minister of economic affairs Steve Chen (陳瑞隆) told a Washington conference on Tuesday.
He said that Taipei was “desperate” to join the TPP and urged the US to support Taiwan’s struggle to get a foot in the door.
Chen, now chairman of Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技), is in Washington with a powerful and large delegation — led by former vice minister of economic affairs and head trade negotiator Francis Liang (梁國新) — to attend the Select USA Investment Summit.
At the same time, the delegation is meeting with US political and business leaders to lobby for TPP support.
Liang, now chairman of the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA, 貿協), told the Carnegie Endowment conference on Taiwan’s economic role in the Asia-Pacific region that trade opportunities for those outside the TPP network would “disappear or be drastically reduced.”
While Taiwanese officials have frequently stressed the importance of TPP membership, they have not previously used such dramatic language.
Former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director Doug Paal, now director of the Asia program at Carnegie, moderated the conference and said that TPP negotiations were “moving quietly below the surface” at Capitol Hill.
Twelve countries, including the US and Japan, are now negotiating the launch of the TPP free-trade agreement and Taiwan hopes to join in a second round of expansion talks set to start after the initial launch.
Liang said that if Taiwan does not become a member of TPP, the nation’s businesses would face 6 to 10 percent tariffs, while their competitors enjoy duty-free treatment in the same vital markets.
He said the 12 countries involved in the initial TPP negotiations represent more than one-third of Taiwan’s current foreign trade.
“Not being a member would have a severe impact,” Liang said. “It is not a choice for us — it is an imperative.”
Liang said there are some domestic challenges and reforms needed for Taiwan to qualify for TPP membership, but that they could be dealt with.
He said that Taiwan needed the “open, clear and strong support” of the US.
“We are here to send a very strong message to the US; to urge the US to support Taiwan to join the TPP as soon as possible,” Chen said.
He said Taiwan feels “isolated and marginalized” because it has not been able to join other free-trade agreements and that the TPP is essential for Taiwan to maintain the momentum of trade liberalization.
“We are here to convince the US that it is not only in the interests of Taiwan, but also in the interests of the US to support Taiwan’s membership in TPP,” Chen said.
“We need the US to take a leadership role in supporting Taiwan,” he added. “We are ready to put everything on the table.”
HORMUZ ISSUE: The US president said he expected crude prices to drop at the end of the war, which he called a ‘minor excursion’ that could continue ‘for a little while’ The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait started reducing oil production, as the near-closure of the crucial Strait of Hormuz ripples through energy markets and affects global supply. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) is “managing offshore production levels to address storage requirements,” the company said in a statement, without giving details. Kuwait Petroleum Corp said it was lowering production at its oil fields and refineries after “Iranian threats against safe passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz.” The war in the Middle East has all but closed Hormuz, the narrow waterway linking the Persian Gulf to the open seas,
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday said the DRAM supply crunch could extend through 2028, as the artificial intelligence (AI) boom has led the world’s major memory makers to dramatically reduce production of standard DRAM and allocate a significant portion of their capacity for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. The most severe supply constraints would stretch to the first half of next year due to “very limited” increases in new DRAM capacity worldwide, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told a news briefing. The company plans to increase monthly 12-inch wafer capacity to 20,000 in the first half of 2028 after a
Taiwan has enough crude oil reserves for more than 100 days and sufficient natural gas reserves for more than 11 days, both above the regulatory safety requirement, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, adding that the government would prioritize domestic price stability as conflicts in the Middle East continue. Overall, energy supply for this month is secure, and the government is continuing efforts to ensure sufficient supply for next month, Kung told reporters after meeting with representatives from business groups at the ministry in Taipei. The ministry has been holding daily cross-ministry meetings at the Executive Yuan to ensure
RATIONING: The proposal would give the Trump administration ample leverage to negotiate investments in the US as it decides how many chips to give each country US officials are debating a new regulatory framework for exporting artificial intelligence (AI) chips and are considering requiring foreign nations to invest in US AI data centers or security guarantees as a condition for granting exports of 200,000 chips or more, according to a document seen by Reuters. The rules are not yet final and could change. They would be the first attempt to regulate the flow of AI chips to US allies and partners since US President Donald Trump’s administration said it rescinded its predecessor’s so-called AI diffusion rules. Those rules sought to keep a significant amount of AI
RSS