Former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director William Stanton yesterday said Taiwan should be more aggressive on talks regarding free-trade agreements (FTA) as well as regional trade agreements in order to foster trade with other countries in the global market.
“We all know free-trade agreements are politically sensitive and politically difficult ... but I think it’s very much in Taiwan’s interests to move as quickly as possible to open up its trade with many countries,” Stanton said at a conference organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (AmCham) yesterday.
Stanton said although Taiwan has been in negotiations on free-trade agreements with Singapore and New Zealand, and that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) both agreed last year that Taiwan should further liberalize its trade to prevent being edged out of global competition, “Taiwan needs to move forward more quickly [on more FTA talks].”
Stanton made the remarks at the 2013 Spring Conference of the Asia-Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce, being hosted by AmCham Taipei for the first time in 20 years.
Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Francis Liang (梁國新), who attended the conference, said the government is “working on the front [as scheduled],” citing Ma’s pledge to join the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) within eight years.
Liang said the nation is also seeking to gain experience from negotiations on a Taiwan-Singapore FTA and a Taiwan-New Zealand Economic Cooperation Agreement in order to “be prepared” to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership or sign an FTA with the US.
“We need to first carry out some domestic reform in order to meet the high standards for joining the TPP,” Liang said.
Landfall Strategy Group director David Skilling said at the conference that since 2001, when there were only three FTAs in the world, more countries, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, are joining intra-regional trade groups, such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) launched by member countries of the ASEAN and the TPP.
However, the increase in multilateral pacts has led to debate about whether such agreements make the global economy more difficult for firms to navigate and create a more complex supervisory environment, with rules set by separate provisions in each country, he said.
In addition to their economic benefits, FTAs and other regional trade agreements, such as the RCEP and the TPP, should not be seen as purely commercial deals in nature, but also carry significant strategic content because the choice of partners in such agreements and their negotiation strategies also reflect political choices.
Tami Overby, vice president of the Asia division of the US Chamber of Commerce, said in a speech that the US is not conducting TPP talks in order to counterbalance the rising economic power of many Asian countries, especially that of China.
She said the US welcomed all nations, including Taiwan, to join the TPP as long as they meet the high standards set by member countries.
Overby added that the US will not give Japan any preferential treatment when negotiating its candidacy.
INTERGRATION: Jensen Huang said that every Nvidia department and function of the company should be using AI, after reportedly saying staff were ‘insane’ not to Nvidia Corp is in a “unique” position in the market, despite facing intensifying competition, chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said during a brief visit to Taiwan yesterday amid a potentially growing challenge from Google for the artificial intelligence (AI) chip market. Huang told reporters that the AI market is “extremely large” and that while there is a lot of competition, Nvidia’s “condition is very strong and our position is very unique.” Huang, who arrived in Taipei on Thursday, was responding to questions about the possible threat posed by Google. According to a report in The Information on Tuesday, Meta has been in
Charming US President Donald Trump one week, angering China the next, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has had a busy start and is riding high in the polls, all on a few hours of sleep a night. However, the honeymoon might end soon for the Margaret Thatcher-admiring leader if a spat with China escalates further and she fails to keep inflation in check. “I believe Prime Minister Takaichi will surely do what she needs to do, so I trust her,” Kozue Otsuka, 50, told reporters at a festival this week for business owners seeking good fortune. While buying a lucky kumade rake featuring
INSULATED: The company said it is less exposed to global complications, as it has built a strong footprint worldwide, and has multiple sources of rare earths and raw minerals Merck Group yesterday said it would ramp up production next year at its new flagship facility in Kaohsiung’s Lujhu District (路竹) to satisfy growing demand for advanced semiconductor materials and specialty gases, and to address supply resilience issues amid mounting geopolitical risks. Merck made the remarks during a news conference before the inauguration of its 500 million euros (US$582.1 million) facility, which is also to supply other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, it said. Merck executive board deputy chair and electronics CEO Kai Beckmann told reporters the company adopted a “local-for-local” strategy about seven years ago to address the cycle time of
RIDING THE WAVE: The race to build AI infrastructure has lifted the valuations of top memory makers, such as Micron, amid dwindling inventories and supply challenges Micron Technology Inc is to spend ￥1.5 trillion (US$9.6 billion) to build a plant in western Japan to make memory chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, the Nikkei reported on Saturday. The move comes as Micron seeks to diversify advanced chip production outside of Taiwan, the Nikkei article said, citing people familiar with the matter. The new factory will manufacture high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, a key component for working with AI processors such as those made by Nvidia Corp, the report said. Micron would build the facility within the compound of its Hiroshima plant, starting in May next year, with plans to launch
RSS