The US stance on Hong Kong’s protests, arms sales to Taiwan and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd’s (華為) fate are among issues in play alongside trade as the US and China resume talks.
The US agreed to tone down criticism of Chinese rule in Hong Kong to restart the talks, the Financial Times reported yesterday.
That concession to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) contrasts with the continued restrictions on Huawei, which US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Tuesday said is still on the “entity list” limiting its access to US goods and services.
The telephone call between the two sides on Tuesday was the first confirmed contact since Xi and US President Donald Trump agreed to resume talks last month.
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin spoke with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He (劉鶴) and Chinese Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan (鍾山), according to an e-mailed statement from a US government official who declined to be named.
Both sides are to continue the talks as appropriate, the official said, without offering more details on the next steps.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce confirmed the conversation in a brief statement yesterday morning, saying the two sides “exchanged opinions on implementing the consensus reached in Osaka” by Xi and Trump.
The announcement came after China criticized the US and its officials this week for agreeing to sell arms to Taiwan and for meeting with a Hong Kong newspaper publisher who is an outspoken critic of Chinese rule.
US National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow called the phone discussion “constructive” and said officials are planning more meetings, but that no details have been confirmed.
The US officials are to continue to speak with their Chinese counterparts on trade issues and perhaps make a trip there “shortly,” White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told reporters.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kudlow told an event in Washington that the US government would ease restrictions on Huawei by relaxing licensing requirements from the commerce department.
Xi had agreed with Trump to scale up purchases of US products, including soybeans and wheat, along with possibly energy, as part of a “good-faith” move to show how open China is to resolving trade differences, he added.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS