The UK officially yesterday became the 12th member of a trans-Pacific trade pact which includes Japan, Australia and Canada, as it seeks to deepen ties in the region and build its global trade links after leaving the EU.
The UK last year announced it would join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in its biggest trade deal since Brexit.
The accession means the UK would be able to apply CPTPP trade rules and lower tariffs with eight of the 11 existing members from yesterday — Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
Photo: REUTERS
The agreement enters into force with Australia on Tuesday next week, and would apply with the final two members — Canada and Mexico — 60 days after they ratify it.
The pact represents the UK’s first free-trade deals with Malaysia and Brunei, but while it had agreements with the other countries, CPTPP provisions go further, especially in giving companies choices on how to use “rules of origin” provisions.
The CPTPP does not have a single market for goods or services, and so regulatory harmonization is not required, unlike the EU, whose bloc the UK left at the end of 2020.
The UK estimates the pact might be worth ￡2 billion (US$2.5 billion) a year in the long run — less than 0.1 percent of GDP.
However, in a sign of the strategic, rather than purely economic, implications of the pact, the UK could now influence whether applicants China and Taiwan would be able to join the group.
The free-trade agreement has its roots in the US-backed Trans-Pacific Partnership, developed in part to counter China’s growing economic dominance.
The US pulled out in 2017 under then-president Donald Trump and the pact was reborn as the CPTPP.
Costa Rica is the next applicant country to go through the process of joining, while Indonesia also aims to do so.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS