President-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that the most important issue for the nation to deal with in its attempt to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is to adjust its industrial and trade policies, as well as its laws.
“Tsai said that the TPP is no doubt a high quality free-trade agreement [FTA] with 30 chapters that, besides cuts in tariffs, focus mostly on coordination between laws, governance and administrative procedures,” Democratic Progressive Party spokesman Ruan Jhao-syong (阮昭雄) said at a news conference following the party’s weekly Central Standing Committee meeting in Taipei, which focused on gaining membership of the TPP.
“For Taiwan to have innovations and upgrades in its economy, many laws need major revisions to be in line with international standards and this is more important than deciding whether to make concessions during negotiations [to join the TPP],” Ruan quoted Tsai as saying.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Ruan said that the priorities of the new government would be to implement reforms to the nation’s economic structure.
“The DPP has begun to prepare for global trade negotiations and a special TPP task force headed by [DPP think tank the New Frontier Foundation executive director] Lin Chuan (林全) has been set up,” Ruan said. “The task force is to actively push for bilateral FTAs, as well as regional economic and trade agreements for the ‘new southward policy.’”
The TPP taskforce under the DPP's New Frontier Foundation think tank was created in December 2014.
Tsai made the remarks after Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research deputy executive director Lee Chun (李淳) gave a special presentation on revisions to the law and economic reforms as the nation seeks to join the TPP.
TPP membership was one of Tsai’s most important trade and economic policies during the presidential election campaign.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS