Taiwan’s exports to nations belonging to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) expanded 23.8 percent in the first nine months of this year, while imports grew 14.9 percent, warranting Taiwan’s bid to join the free-trade bloc, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics (DGBAS) showed on Thursday last week.
The data was released one year after Taiwan announced its aim to join the CPTPP, which comprises 11 member states: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
The CPTPP’s members account for 13.4 percent of global GDP, at about US$13.5 trillion in total, making it one of the world’s largest free-trade areas, along with the North American Free Trade Agreement, the EU and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the DGBAS said.
Photo courtesy of the Singaporean Ministry of Trade and Industry via CNA
DGBAS Statistics Department head Tsai Yu-tai (蔡鈺泰) said that Taiwan’s increase in trade with CPTPP member states had a lot to do with Taiwan benefitting from the contactless economy created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
That benefit is fading, explaining why exports lost momentum last quarter and might decline further this quarter and early next year, Tsai said.
Taiwan on Sept. 22 last year filed an official request to join the CPTPP and has made becoming a member its top policy priority, updating its fishing, medicine, investment, patent, trademark and intellectual property regulations to align with the trade body’s standards, the National Development Council has said.
CPTPP membership would positively affect local makers of textiles, garments, machinery and machine tools that remain heavily dependent on traditional manufacturing procedures and are sensitive to tariff changes, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) said.
As Taiwan’s textile products are relatively competitive in Asia, joining the CPTPP would boost that advantage, the Taipei-based think tank said.
While pursuing CPTPP membership, the government must not forget to boost relations with individual member economies, it said.
Exports last year to CPTPP markets soared 33 percent annually to US$94.99 billion, better than an average 9.3 percent increase over the previous five years, DGBAS data showed.
Shipments of electronics last year contributed US$41.32 billion, or 43.5 percent, followed by base metals and related products at US$8.31 billion, and information and communications technology products at US$7.8 billion, the DGBAS said.
Imports from CPTPP areas last year totaled US$108.61 billion, up 30 percent year-on-year, it said.
Electronics, mineral products and machinery were the top three import sectors, it said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six