Taiwanese and US companies signed seven memorandums of understanding (MOUs) at a high-level trade meeting in Washington to enhance cooperation in fields such as renewable energy and 5G communications, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Thursday.
The MOUs inked during the first physical meeting under the Technology Trade and Investment Collaboration (TTIC) framework could help both countries enhance cooperation and stabilize global supply chains, said Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花), head of the Taiwanese delegation.
Participating Taiwanese companies included state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電), Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空), Quanta Cloud Technology (雲達科技), HTC Corp (宏達電), TMY Technology Inc (稜研科技) and Edgecore Networks Corp (鈺登), the ministry said.
Photo: CNA
On the US side, representatives from General Electric Co (GE), Intel Corp, RingCentral Inc, Lumen Technologies and DuPont were present.
One of the MOUs involves GE helping AIDC use hydrogen-based power-generation technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop its own maintenance capabilities on a turbine-supported electrification project, the ministry said.
GE is also to work with Taipower to achieve its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the ministry said.
The MOUs also cover information and communications technology cooperation in areas such as smart manufacturing, entertainment, healthcare and 5G connectivity, it said.
Besides attending the TTIC meeting, the first since the body was established in December last year for Taiwan and the US to develop commercial programs and bolster critical technology supply chains, Wang said her trip, which runs from Oct. 9 to tomorrow, has also facilitated exchanges between about 80 Taiwanese and US firms.
Wang said the exchanges had generated a positive response, and she believed there would be more TTIC meetings next year, although the date and location were still to be decided.
Wang was to visit companies in Silicon Valley, including Applied Materials Inc, after wrapping up her visit in Washington yesterday.
She expressed hopes that her visit could generate orders and potential investments of up to NT$30 billion (US$940.91 million).
Wang reiterated Taiwan’s critical role in the global semiconductor industry, supported by a solid industry cluster, high-quality talent and a sound legal framework for semiconductor intellectual property protection.
Any disruption to the semiconductor industry in Taiwan could have a severe impact on the global tech industry and world economy, she said, calling for stable relations between Taiwan and China.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RESHAPING COMMERCE: Major industrialized economies accepted 15 percent duties on their products, while charges on items from Mexico, Canada and China are even bigger US President Donald Trump has unveiled a slew of new tariffs that boosted the average US rate on goods from across the world, forging ahead with his turbulent effort to reshape international commerce. The baseline rates for many trading partners remain unchanged at 10 percent from the duties Trump imposed in April, easing the worst fears of investors after the president had previously said they could double. Yet his move to raise tariffs on some Canadian goods to 35 percent threatens to inject fresh tensions into an already strained relationship, while nations such as Switzerland and New Zealand also saw increased
RSS