A steel-dumping dispute between Taiwan and China may bring the two political rivals to the negotiating table for the first time under the framework of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
After refusing for months to conduct bilateral talks with Taiwan, China notified Taiwan's WTO representative office in Geneva late last month of its intent to open negotiations with Taiwan to discuss Taiwan's China-bound exports of cold-rolled steel.
"It will be a fixed-topic negotiation," John Deng (
Deng added that the representative office is still waiting for Taipei's instructions before responding to China's offer.
In the letter, China, however, referred to Taiwan's WTO representative office as the "WTO economic and trade office," instead of its official title, "the Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu."
On Thursday, Taiwan's permanent representative to the WTO, Yen Ching-chang (
Yen refused to comment on whether the potential face-to-face trade talks under the global body would be hindered by the move, according to local media.
"It's Taipei's call, but our delegation will begin preparing for talks," Yen was quoted as saying.
But back in Taipei, Minister of Economic Affairs Lin Yi-fu (
Taiwan plans to send a delegation to Geneva next week to deal with the steel issue, according to foreign trade officials in Taipei.
Despite the name issue, pundits yesterday were upbeat about the possibility of breaking the ice on trade talks with China.
"We look forward to any chance of launching government-to-government cross-strait trade talks," said Wang Chung-yu (
Wang, who is also a KMT legislator, however, expressed concern that resolving disputes under the WTO framework will be very time-consuming. He said that he is not optimistic that such negotiations will reach any conclusions soon.
Tien Jiun-mei (
"It's better to talk to each other to resolve trade disputes," Tien said.
"If negotiations work, this may help [the two nations] make headway at setting up a dispute-solving mechanism for future cross-strait trade relations."
Taiwan's steel industry suffers from oversupply and exports some 60 to 90 percent of its steel production to China,Tien said.
In return, China may seek to persuade Taiwan to open up its steel markets during negotiations, she said.
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday said it is closely monitoring developments in Venezuela, and would continue to cooperate with democratic allies and work together for regional and global security, stability, and prosperity. The remarks came after the US on Saturday launched a series of airstrikes in Venezuela and kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was later flown to New York along with his wife. The pair face US charges related to drug trafficking and alleged cooperation with gangs designated as terrorist organizations. Maduro has denied the allegations. The ministry said that it is closely monitoring the political and economic situation
UNRELENTING: China attempted cyberattacks on Taiwan’s critical infrastructure 2.63 million times per day last year, up from 1.23 million in 2023, the NSB said China’s cyberarmy has long engaged in cyberattacks against Taiwan’s critical infrastructure, employing diverse and evolving tactics, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday, adding that cyberattacks on critical energy infrastructure last year increased 10-fold compared with the previous year. The NSB yesterday released a report titled Analysis on China’s Cyber Threats to Taiwan’s Critical Infrastructure in 2025, outlining the number of cyberattacks, major tactics and hacker groups. Taiwan’s national intelligence community identified a large number of cybersecurity incidents last year, the bureau said in a statement. China’s cyberarmy last year launched an average of 2.63 million intrusion attempts per day targeting Taiwan’s critical
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
RSS