Details of a revamped cross-Pacific pact aimed at slashing trade barriers were released yesterday, amid a renewed push for the US to rejoin the 11-nation deal.
New Zealand unveiled the official text of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which had to be redrawn after US President Donald Trump rejected it last year just days after assuming office.
New Zealand Minister of Trade David Parker said making the pact — formerly known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — public would allow better scrutiny before it is formally signed in Santiago, Chile, on March 8.
Photo: AP
“New Zealand has been working hard to see the text made public as quickly as possible,” Parker said, adding that changes to the original document included the suspension of 22 items relating to areas such as intellectual property and taxpayer subsidized medicine.
Australian Minister of Trade Steve Ciobo said the landmark agreement would eliminate more than 98 percent of tariffs in a trade zone with a combined GDP of about US$13 trillion.
“The [Australian Prime Minister Malcolm] Turnbull government wants to see this landmark agreement enter into force as soon as possible so Australian farmers, businesses and manufactures can enjoy its benefits,” he said.
The 11 CPTPP countries are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Together they account for about 13.5 percent of the global economy.
However, that figure would be closer to 40 percent if the US was included, an outcome some lawmakers in Trump’s own Republican Party are reportedly pushing for.
The Washington Post on Tuesday said that 25 Republican senators had written to Trump urging a rethink.
“We encourage you to work aggressively to secure reforms that would allow the United States to join the agreement,” they wrote in a letter cited by the newspaper.
“Increased economic engagement with the 11 nations currently in TPP has the potential to substantially improve the competitiveness of US businesses, support millions of US jobs, increase US exports, increase wages, fully unleash America’s energy potential and benefit consumers,” they said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six