The American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (AmCham) yesterday called on Taiwan’s incoming government to push through a “second-generation Administrative Procedure Act (APA)” to prepare the nation for accession to trade blocs like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
The US business group’s remark came after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) clinched a landslide victory in Saturday’s elections to become the nation’s first female president.
AmCham released a statement congratulating Tsai on her victory in the presidential race.
“This is a historic occasion — the sixth time that Taiwan’s citizens voted directly for their president and the third time that the election resulted in the peaceful transition of power between political parties,” AmCham chairman Dan Silver said in the statement.
AmCham said it is confident that the relationship between the people of Taiwan and the US will continue to grow under the new government, but added that Taiwan has only 15 to 18 months to prepare for the talks over the second round of membership in the TPP, which is led by the US and Japan and is to account for 40 percent of the world’s trade when it takes effect.
“Part of that preparation should be adoption of an APA requiring Taiwan’s government agencies to publish all substantive rules of general applicability in advance, give the public at least 30 (or 60) days to comment and then respond in summary form to the comments,” AmCham said in the statement.
The result would be to provide Taiwan with a transparent, practical and effective regulatory structure better aligned with the public interest and international best practices, the statement said.
AmCham has been closely watching Taiwan’s progress in pursuing membership in the 12-member TPP.
In October last year, AmCham said that the TPP was crucial for Taiwan and the nation had to do everything in its power to burnish its candidacy to gain accession to the bloc in the second round, when the TPP was ready to expand its membership for another year or more.
“A trade economy such as Taiwan’s cannot afford to be left out of such a critical initiative,” AmCham said at the time.
Taiwan’s trade with the 12 TPP nations stood at US$204.6 billion and accounted for 35 percent of the nation’s overall trade in 2014, according to statistics from the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
In October last year, the US, Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim nations reached a landmark agreement over the TPP after years of negotiations.
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Netherlands-based semiconductor equipment supplier ASML Holding NV yesterday said that it is planning to hire an additional 1,000 people in Taiwan this year in response to growing demand from clients. ASML had previously planned to recruit 600 people this year, but that the plan has been adjusted upward, ASML vice president and ASML Taiwan general manager Grace Wang (汪佳慧) told reporters. ASML has a workforce of more than 4,500 in Taiwan, accounting for about 10 percent of its global total, Wang said. This year’s recruitment campaign would focus on adding people in the customer support, manufacturing and supply chain domains to assist ASML
UNDER MICROSCOPE: Taiwan detained three people who allegedly conspired to buy servers in Taiwan and export them using fraudulent documentation, prosecutors said Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday urged Super Micro Computer Inc to tighten up on compliance after Taiwan detained three people this week for allegedly making fraudulent declarations about artificial intelligence (AI) servers made by its US partner. The development marked the nation’s first crackdown on semiconductor smuggling, which grew after the US slapped restrictions on exports of high-end chips such as Nvidia AI accelerators to China. Nvidia is “rigorous” in explaining regulations to all of its partners, Huang told reporters after arriving in Taipei. “Ultimately Super Micro has to run their own company,” he said in response to
Nvidia Corp yesterday announced that CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) would attend an employee meeting in Taipei tomorrow to celebrate the launch of the company’s Taiwan headquarters project. Huang would attend a gathering at the site of Nvidia’s planned headquarters in Beitou Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區), the company said in a statement. After arriving in Taiwan on Saturday last week, Huang told reporters that he plans to meet with Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家), and would attend the groundbreaking ceremony for Nvidia’s Taiwan headquarters tomorrow. Nvidia has not yet applied
RSS