Guatemala has eliminated duties on Taiwanese exports of bicycles and motorcycles, the Bureau of Foreign Trade said yesterday after a newly amended free-trade agreement between the two nations took effect.
The agreement has been in place since 2006 and was revised earlier this year to remove duties on a number of goods from both nations.
Taiwan is Guatemala’s third-largest source of bicycles and 14th-largest source of motorcycles, a bureau official surnamed Chen (陳) told the Taipei Times by telephone, adding that Guatemala previously levied duties of 15 percent and 10 percent on each product respectively.
In exchange for Taiwan enjoying duty-free exports of bicycles and motorcycles, Guatemala’s annual tariff-free sugar quota, which includes raw and refined sugar, has increased to 125,000 tonnes from an average of about 94,000 tonnes per year, the bureau said.
“Sugar is one of Guatemala’s main exports to Taiwan and the country is also one of our largest sources” of sugar, Chen said, adding that Taiwan imported 100,000 tonnes of sugar from Guatemala last year.
Coffee beans from Guatemala, Taiwan’s biggest source of the product, were already exempt from duties.
In the revised agreement, the bureau also lifted duties on roasted chicory and other coffee substitutes.
Other Guatemalan imports now also exempt from customs duties include mascarene grass, fruit or nut-bearing trees, shrubs, and bushes, the bureau said.
As imports from Guatemala totaled US$417,000 in 2018, the removal of tariffs on such goods would not negatively affect Taiwan’s local industries, but would help solidify the relationship between the two countries, the bureau said.
LIMITED IMPACT: Investor confidence was likely sustained by its relatively small exposure to the Chinese market, as only less advanced chips are made in Nanjing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) saw its stock price close steady yesterday in a sign that the loss of the validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing, China, fab should have a mild impact on the world’s biggest contract chipmaker financially and technologically. Media reports about the waiver loss sent TSMC down 1.29 percent during the early trading session yesterday, but the stock soon regained strength and ended at NT$1,160, unchanged from Tuesday. Investors’ confidence in TSMC was likely built on its relatively small exposure to the Chinese market, as Chinese customers contributed about 9 percent to TSMC’s revenue last
With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US. With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according
DEBUT: The trade show is to feature 17 national pavilions, a new high for the event, including from Canada, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Sweden and Vietnam for the first time The Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opens on Wednesday, is expected to see a new high in the number of exhibitors and visitors from around the world, said its organizer, SEMI, which has described the annual event as the “Olympics of the semiconductor industry.” SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, and touts the annual exhibition as the most influential semiconductor trade show in the world, said more than 1,200 enterprises from 56 countries are to showcase their innovations across more than 4,100 booths, and that the event could attract 100,000 visitors. This year’s event features 17
Germany is to establish its first-ever national pavilion at Semicon Taiwan, which starts tomorrow in Taipei, as the country looks to raise its profile and deepen semiconductor ties with Taiwan as global chip demand accelerates. Martin Mayer, a semiconductor investment expert at Germany Trade & Invest (GTAI), Germany’s international economic promotion agency, said before leaving for Taiwan that the nation is a crucial partner in developing Germany’s semiconductor ecosystem. Germany’s debut at the international semiconductor exhibition in Taipei aims to “show presence” and signal its commitment to semiconductors, while building trust with Taiwanese companies, government and industry associations, he said. “The best outcome
RSS