Asia-Pacific leaders will this week press for the urgent revival of deadlocked world trade talks and urge crucial concessions from the major players, a draft statement said yesterday.
Hailing upcoming negotiations in Geneva as an "unparalleled" opportunity to make progress, the APEC forum will make a last-ditch appeal to sparring trade nations.
The appeal comes with key negotiators scheduled to gather for intensive discussions this week in Geneva aimed at sealing an agreement that would save the Doha round of WTO talks on breaking down global trade barriers.
"We all realize that the stakes are high. Time is running out," said David Spencer, Australia's ambassador to APEC.
In the draft statement, obtained by Agence France Presse, the leaders "pledge to push hard for the progress necessary to ensure the Doha Round negotiations enter their final phase this year."
"There has never been a more urgent need to make progress," the draft statement said.
"The negotiations offer unparalleled potential to lower barriers to trade and to create a freer, fairer and more secure global market in which we can all compete," it said.
"We insist that consensus will only be possible on the basis of an ambitious, balanced result that delivers substantial, real market access for agricultural and industrial goods and for services, as well as reductions in trade-distorting agricultural subsidies," it said.
The draft statement holds out hope that the Doha talks could still succeed.
"The negotiations are undeniably difficult and complex. But real progress has already been made in many areas and it is our firm view that the remaining differences can be successfully bridged," the statement said.
But a senior Southeast Asian official involved in the preparatory meetings for the Sydney summit said the statement lacked punch because it does not give concrete commitments that can break the impasse.
"No one is saying what they are prepared to concede," said the source, who asked not to be named.
The official said it was crucial for the US to take the lead in saying how far it is prepared to go in cutting domestic farm subsidies, and for the US president to be given fast-track negotiating power.
That power expired in June and has not been renewed by the US Congress.
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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