The Ministry of Finance (MOF) said yesterday that the earliest the cross-strait customs cooperation agreement signed between Taiwan and China last week will take effect will be Jan. 1 next year.
“We do not know if the agreement is subject to substantive examination by the legislature or just for future reference,” Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) told a press conference.
The customs cooperation agreement, designed in part to raise customs clearance efficiency, was signed by Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) on Thursday.
Chang said that the signing of the customs cooperation agreement is necessary, as all of the 608 items included in the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement’s (ECFA) early-harvest list will be subjected to a zero-tariff rule from next year — meaning that the facilitation of customs reporting and information-sharing are highly needed.
Under the agreement, companies from both sides of the Taiwan Strait should enjoy lower costs after customs valuations and tariff classifications are standardized, Chang said.
The agreement will also provide a legal framework for further two-way authentication of authorized economic operators (AEO), Chang said, adding that these authorized operators may enjoy free paper and cargo examination for commodities transported with duty-paid value of more than NT$100 million (US$3.33 million).
Chang said he expects customs cooperation between Taiwan and China to demonstrate to other countries the benefits of trade with Taiwan and prompt more countries to sign cooperation agreements with Taiwan in the future.
The ministry is also scheduled to sign a two-way authentication of an AEO with the US by the end of this year.
DOLLAR CHALLENGE: BRICS countries’ growing share of global GDP threatens the US dollar’s dominance, which some member states seek to displace for world trade US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday threatened 100 percent tariffs against a bloc of nine nations if they act to undermine the US dollar. His threat was directed at countries in the so-called BRICS alliance, which consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have applied to become members and several other countries have expressed interest in joining. While the US dollar is by far the most-used currency in global business and has survived past challenges to its preeminence, members of the alliance and other developing nations say they are fed
LIMITED MEASURES: The proposed restrictions on Chinese chip exports are weaker than previously considered, following lobbying by major US firms, sources said US President Joe Biden’s administration is weighing additional curbs on sales of semiconductor equipment and artificial intelligence (AI) memory chips to China that would escalate the US crackdown on Beijing’s tech ambitions, but stop short of some stricter measures previously considered, said sources familiar with the matter. The restrictions could be unveiled as soon as next week, said the sources, who emphasized that the timing and contours of the rules have changed several times, and that nothing is final until they are published. The measures follow months of deliberations by US officials, negotiations with allies in Japan and the Netherlands, and
Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) yesterday said it expects any impact of new tariffs from US president-elect Donald Trump to hit the company less than its rivals, citing its global manufacturing footprint. Young Liu (劉揚偉), chairman of the contract manufacturer and key Apple Inc supplier, told reporters after a forum in Taipei that it saw the primary impact of any fresh tariffs falling on its clients because its business model is based on contract manufacturing. “Clients may decide to shift production locations, but looking at Foxconn’s global footprint, we are ahead. As a result, the impact on us is likely smaller compared to
TECH COMPETITION: The US restricted sales of two dozen types of manufacturing equipment and three software tools, and blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities US President Joe Biden’s administration unveiled new restrictions on China’s access to vital components for chips and artificial intelligence (AI), escalating a campaign to contain Beijing’s technological ambitions. The US Department of Commerce slapped additional curbs on the sale of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and chipmaking gear, including that produced by US firms at foreign facilities. It also blacklisted 140 more Chinese entities that it accused of acting on Beijing’s behalf, although it did not name them in an initial statement. Full details on the new sanctions and Entity List additions were to be published later yesterday, a US official said. The US “will
RSS