Taiwan and the EU have agreed to collaborate on enhancing semiconductor supply chain resilience by boosting bilateral trade and investment, and deepening research-and-development efforts, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry issued the statement after wrapping up the first ministerial-level talks between Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) and EU Director-General for Trade Sabine Weyand last night.
The meeting represented a major breakthrough in Taiwan’s trade relationship with the EU, it said.
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
The semiconductor supply chain issue topped the agenda of the online meeting, as a global chip crunch has taken a toll on auto production and other industries after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in March last year upended supply chains and paralyzed logistics.
Taiwan has strived to help its EU allies mitigate chip supply shortages and sent a delegation of semiconductor experts to Lithuania, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to gain a better understanding of their industrial developments and explore ways to deepen its partnerships with EU nations, the statement said.
“Taiwan will continue playing its role as the world’s trusted partner in the semiconductor industry and assist the world to stabilize supply chain resilience,” Wang said in the statement.
As part of a greater effort to bolster supply chain resilience, Taiwan and the EU also agreed to share information about semiconductor supply chains, the statement said.
New working groups would be formed to discuss details about how to build a resilient semiconductor supply chain and to increase exchanges about trade, investment and other strategic issues, it said.
Aside from discussing trade barriers, Wang and Weyand also delved into the issue of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures related to plant and animal product exports to the EU, it said.
Taiwan also demonstrated its determination to achieve net-zero carbon emissions in 2050, the ministry said.
The EU is the fifth-biggest trade partner of Taiwan, with bilateral trade last year surging 32.55 percent to US$68.7 billion from a year earlier.
TIMING: 'The CHIPS Act funding is crucial for us. In other words, if the act’s passage is delayed for too long, we will certainly need to adjust,’ chairwoman Doris Hsu said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓) plans to start construction on a US$5 billion wafer fabrication facility in Texas in November, after passage of the US$52 billion Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act. The fab would be the largest of its kind in the US and one of the largest in the world, with a monthly capacity of 1.2 million wafers, GlobalWafers said, adding that the investment would be the first new fab in the US in more than 20 years and critical to closing a semiconductor supply chain gap. The world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier said the project, which
Samsung Electronics Co yesterday commenced mass production of 3-nanometer chips that are more powerful and efficient than predecessors, beating rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to a key milestone in the race to build the most advanced chips in the world. South Korea’s largest company said in a statement that it was beginning with 3-nanometer semiconductors for high-performance and specialized low-power computing applications before expanding to mobile processors. By applying so-called Gate-All-Around transistor architecture, Samsung’s 3-nanometer products reduce power consumption by up to 45 percent and improve performance by 23 percent compared with 5-nanometer chips, it said. Samsung’s push to be first
COUNTERING CHINA: ‘When democracies demonstrate what we can do ... I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,’ US President Joe Biden said US President Joe Biden rebooted his effort to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) after an earlier campaign faltered, enlisting the support of G7 leaders at their summit in Germany. The Build Back Better World initiative, named after Biden’s domestic spending and climate agenda, struggled to get off the ground because not enough G7 partners contributed financially when it was unveiled a year ago, people familiar with its lack of progress said. “When democracies demonstrate what we can do — all that we have to offer — I have no doubt that we’ll win that competition every time,” Biden said during
Three to four tropical storms or typhoons are expected to hit Taiwan this year due to a weak La Nina effect in the northwest Pacific Ocean, the Central Weather Bureau (CWB) said yesterday, as typhoon season begins next month. Taiwan’s typhoon season generally lasts from July to September, with most typhoons occurring in August. Weather Forecast Center Director Lu Kuo-chen (呂國臣) told a news conference that a weakening La Nina is expected to have less of an effect on Taiwan. “The climate simulation we conducted, and those conducted by other meteorological agencies around the world, showed that the number of typhoons that