The failure of the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun, Mexico, has provided the time that Taiwanese farmers need to transform their business, a top agriculture official said yesterday after returning from the talks.
"The breakdown of the trade talks on agricultural issues is actually not bad news for Taiwan," said Lee Ching-lung (李金龍), chairman of the Council of Agriculture.
"The result has simply given a longer grace period for our farmers to cushion the impact brought by the proposed immediate market opening," Lee said.
Farmers have found it hard to survive in the face of increased tax-free imports following the nation's accession to the WTO in January last year, Lee said.
The council has been promoting "recreational agriculture" through the establishment of bed-and-breakfasts or farming and fishing activities to help the sector branch out into the tourism industry.
During this transformation period, the government has no intention of making further concessions on agricultural issues, except for slight reductions in the subsidies offered to farmers, Lee said.
During the Cancun meeting, Taiwan and nine other like-minded countries formed an alliance called the Group of 10 (G-10), Lee said. The other members include Japan, South Korea, Israel and Switzerland.
The G-10 members agreed to jointly call on their counterparts to apply rules set during the Uruguay Round of trade talks between 1986 and 1993 in future WTO agricultural talks, Lee said.
"We realized that we have to form an alliance with other countries in the WTO, or our voice or interests will be easily ignored," he said.
Aside from the collective appeal of the G-10, Lee said Taiwan, as a new member of the WTO, hopes to strive for a longer grace period for the liberalization of its agricultural market, the longer the better.
According to Lee, during bilateral talks with Japan in Cancun, Japanese lawmaker Shoichi Nakagawa proposed signing a free trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan.
Lee said such a pact would be welcomed, but there is no timetable yet as the two countries have not scheduled the necessary negotiations.
Lee said FTAs with other countries will become more important if the WTO fails to remain an arena for the international community to solve disagreements.
"We don't want to see that happen, since Taiwan worked hard and long to enter the WTO," Lee said. "But if negotiations in the WTO in the future go nowhere -- the way this conference did -- I believe that many countries will seek FTAs with other countries."
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort