Taiwan’s exclusion from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) would have little effect on local exporters, because most firms already have a presence in Southeast Asia to take advantage of the favorable tariff terms there, government officials said yesterday.
Fifteen Asia-Pacific nations on Sunday signed the free-trade deal to form a trade bloc that accounts for nearly 30 percent of global GDP.
Minister of Finance Su Jain-rong (蘇建榮) told a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee that tariffs are already exempted on about 70 percent of Taiwanese shipments to RCEP markets.
Photo: Chien Jung-feng, Taipei Times
“The formation of the trade body, which is to expand the scope of tariff concessions [between the 15 member nations] from the current 90 percent to 92 percent, would have a very limited impact on Taiwan’s competitiveness,” Su said.
The difference of 2 percentage points is mild, he added.
Lawmakers from across party lines voiced concern that Taiwan would be marginalized internationally after failing to join the trade body and because of the transition in power in the US after US President Donald Trump lost the election.
RCEP members have negotiated trade terms for the past eight years during which time major Taiwanese companies have made inroads in ASEAN markets, giving them access to free trade, Su said.
The government has also encouraged local companies to diversify their investments beyond China under the New Southbound Policy, he added.
The National Development Council shared similar observations, saying that Taiwan-made semiconductors make up 60 percent of shipments to RCEP destinations and there is no tariff on semiconductors and related products due to international technology pacts and protections.
Some RCEP member nations have lowered tariffs to zero for particular technology products to remain competitive globally, the council said in a statement, explaining why tariffs are already not charged on about 70 percent of Taiwanese exports.
US-China trade tensions and the COVID-19 pandemic have awakened companies to the need for risk diversification and the danger of overdependence on a single market, the council said.
As a result, companies are restructuring their supply chains and speeding up digital transformation, it said.
Global supply realignment and the ability to develop a digital economy might become more important and relevant to supporting the economy than tariff reductions, the council said.
MARKET BOOST: Elon Musk said Tesla would resume bitcoin transactions once there is ‘reasonable’ clean energy usage by miners and denied selling a big part of his holdings Bitcoin yesterday hit a two-week peak just shy of US$40,000, after another weekend reacting to tweets from Tesla Inc chief executive Elon Musk, who fended off criticism over his market influence and said Tesla sold bitcoin, but might resume transactions using it. Bitcoin has gyrated to Musk’s views for months since Tesla announced a US$1.5 billion bitcoin purchase in February and said it would take the cryptocurrency in payment. He later said the electric vehicle maker would not accept bitcoin due to concerns over how mining the currency requires high energy use and contributes to climate change. “When there’s confirmation of reasonable
China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s biggest steelmaker, yesterday said that it would not be raising prices for some products next month, ending 12 consecutive months of increases. “There is a discrepancy between China Steel’s prices and international prices, but in consideration of price stability, we have decided not to adjust upward monthly-priced products,” the company said in a statement. That means the price of hot-rolled steel plates, hot-rolled steel coils, cold-rolled steel coils and other monthly-priced items would not change next month. However, the cost of other items priced seasonally would be going up, the company said, adding that prices of products
Synopsys Inc, a US-based electronic design automation solutions provider, yesterday said that it has signed up more than 20 of its clients for the latest device made using the most recent advanced process developed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電). Synopsys’ DesignWare IP, which is used by designers of integrated circuits, has been used by more than 20 clients in a wide range of industries, including automotive electronics, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing devices and servers, the company said in a statement. The DesignWare IP solution was made using TSMC’s advanced 5 nanometer process, its latest technology, which the semiconductor giant launched
MOVING ON UP: Taiwan improved in all four areas measured by the IMD, making its biggest leap, from 17th to sixth place, in economic performance Taiwan moved up three spots from last year to place eighth, its best performance since 2013, in the latest annual world competitiveness rankings, released yesterday by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD). Innovation, digitalization, welfare benefits and social cohesion are critical to economic performance, with Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and Singapore making up the top five on the list this year, the Switzerland-based institute said, after grading 64 countries and regions based on economic performance, infrastructure, and government and business efficiency. “Leading performers are characterized by varying degrees of investment in innovation, diversified economic activities and supportive public policy,” IMD
RSS