Australia is seeking to restart trade talks with Indonesia, Australian Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb said, after a series of diplomatic spats left the negotiations in limbo.
“I would certainly like to get things back on track by the end of year,” Robb said in a telephone interview on Monday from New Delhi.
A 200-person business delegation that was shelved amid a dispute over Indonesia’s use of the death penalty for drug crimes is now planned for November, he said.
Australia’s bid to sign a comprehensive economic partnership agreement with Indonesia, a potential stepping stone to a free trade pact, has floundered for two years due to periodic tensions, including the disagreement over the execution of Australian citizens, a spying scandal and tension over Australia sending boatloads of asylum seekers — many of them from poor or war-torn nations — back to Indonesian waters.
Robb’s comments reflect Australia’s efforts to shield its economic relationship with its northern neighbor from ups and downs in political ties, and expand trade from the A$11.8 billion (US$9.2 billion) reached last year. Indonesia is Australia’s 11th-largest trading partner, with the Asian nation buying wheat and live animals while Australia purchases crude petroleum.
“There is a geopolitical context where we have had a few things happening, but I think underneath that there is a sensible recognition on both sides that we are linked in lots of ways,” Robb said. “It is critical that we maintain the commercial relationships and then critical that we accelerate them quite significantly.”
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott sought to brush off Indonesian concerns this month that Australia paid people smugglers to turn around boats carrying asylum seekers. Canberra recently returned its ambassador to Jakarta, having recalled him after the executions of two Australian citizens for drug crimes in April.
Robb is in New Delhi for free-trade talks with India after completing deals with China, Japan and South Korea in the past year. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Australian parliament in November last year that he wants to speed up negotiations on a comprehensive economic partnership agreement as he seeks better access for India’s businesses to the nation’s markets.
An India trade deal is on track to be completed by the end of the year, Robb said. Australia’s first shipments of uranium to the nation, agreed to in September last year, are close, he said, without elaborating.
India, which has an appetite for Australia’s coal, gold and copper, is the nation’s 10th-largest trading partner, accounting for about A$12 billion in exports and imports of merchandise, according to Australian government figures.
Robb also said he could not decide whether the US would see the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership through to fruition. While the US House of Representatives on Friday last week passed US President Barack Obama’s fast-track trade bill that would enable passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the laws still need US Senate approval.
Australia could have a “positive” outcome from negotiations to join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, part of China’s efforts to boost its influence in the region, Robb said.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
FACTORY SHIFT: While Taiwan produces most of the world’s AI servers, firms are under pressure to move manufacturing amid geopolitical tensions Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) started building artificial intelligence (AI) servers in India’s south, the latest boon for the rapidly growing country’s push to become a high-tech powerhouse. The company yesterday said it has started making the large, powerful computers in Pondicherry, southeastern India, moving beyond products such as laptops and smartphones. The Chinese company would also build out its facilities in the Bangalore region, including a research lab with a focus on AI. Lenovo’s plans mark another win for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tries to attract more technology investment into the country. While India’s tense relationship with China has suffered setbacks