The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Taipei urged the government yesterday to speed up its efforts to liberalize the business environment, which would help its bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
In order to join to the proposed TPP, Taiwan has to obtain the consent of the trade bloc’s 12 negotiating members, who will make their decisions based on the level of liberalization in Taiwan and whether Taiwan’s business environment is well-aligned with internationally accepted standards, AmCham president Andrea Wu (吳王小珍) said in an interview with a local radio station.
This means that Taiwan will have to prove it has promoted liberalization before it joins the TPP, not after, she said.
Another barrier Taiwan needs to overcome involves the government’s credibility, she said.
The delay in passing the cross-strait service trade agreement by the Legislative Yuan and the dispute over US beef imports, for example, have led the international community to doubt the government’s ability to honor its commitments, she said.
Failure to join important trade blocs such as the TPP has lowered foreign investors’ confidence in the Taiwanese economy, she said.
In AmCham’s Business Climate Survey for this year, only 54 percent of respondents expressed optimism in Taiwan’s five-year business outlook, down from 81 percent in 2011, she said.
Wu also called on the government to allow international companies to tender for major public construction projects.
Organizing one national referendum and 26 recall elections targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators could cost NT$1.62 billion (US$55.38 million), the Central Election Commission said yesterday. The cost of each recall vote ranges from NT$16 million to NT$20 million, while that of a national referendum is NT$1.1 billion, the commission said. Based on the higher estimate of NT$20 million per recall vote, if all 26 confirmed recall votes against KMT legislators are taken into consideration, along with the national referendum on restarting the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant, the total could be as much as NT$1.62 billion, it said. The commission previously announced
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday welcomed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s remarks that the organization’s cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners must be deepened to deter potential threats from China and Russia. Rutte on Wednesday in Berlin met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead of a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Germany’s accession to NATO. He told a post-meeting news conference that China is rapidly building up its armed forces, and the number of vessels in its navy outnumbers those of the US Navy. “They will have another 100 ships sailing by 2030. They now have 1,000 nuclear warheads,” Rutte said, adding that such
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The cosponsors of a new US sanctions package targeting Russia on Thursday briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation and said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions regarding Taiwan. The bill backed by US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations such as China and India, which account for about 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade, the bankroll of much of its war effort. Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press
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