Minister of Economic Affairs Yiin Chii-ming (尹啟銘) yesterday voiced the government’s desire to sign a free-trade agreement (FTA) with the EU, seeking support from European companies doing businesses here.
He told a European Chamber of Commerce Taipei (ECCT) luncheon yesterday that an FTA between Taiwan and the EU would serve investment and trade interests and create a win-win trade partnership.
“We believe that a Taiwan-EU FTA is vital to developing closer economic relations and partnership between Taiwan and the EU,” he told the ECCT gathering yesterday.
Citing recent estimates from the government-sponsored Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research, Yiin said that inking an FTA would help boost the local economy by US$600 million — or 0.21 percent of the nation’s GDP growth — and economies in the EU by US$3.3 billion, or 0.04 percent of its GDP.
If the agreement further opened markets between the regions, economic benefits for Taiwan and the EU could reach US$1.4 billion and US$3.5 billion respectively, he said.
The institution estimated that local exports to the EU could increase by US$5 billion while the EU’s exports to Taiwan could jump by US$6 billion, Yiin said.
Another report by Copenhagen Economics, initiated by the Taipei chamber, is even more optimistic.
The Copenhagen report’s preliminary findings show that such an agreement would boost trade between the EU and Taiwan by “billions of euros” while accelerating the local economy “by 1 percent,” Yiin said.
Details of the Copenhagen report are to be released next week by the chamber, which will soon mail the report to the EU’s headquarters in Brussels for reference, said chief executive officer Guy Wittich.
The chamber has also initiated “trade enhancement measures” to strengthen economic relations between both sides, Yiin said.
Although the chamber has thrown its support behind the inking of a Taiwan-EU FTA, its members were more concerned about trade barriers here, which they expect would pose a challenge.
Given that local businesses have had full access to bidding for government contracts in Europe, Dirk Sanger, the chamber’s ex-chairman, urged the local government yesterday to “move on” and fulfill the nation’s six-year-old commitment by relaxing restrictions on government purchasing by foreign businesses.
COMPETITION: AMD, Intel and Qualcomm are unveiling new laptop and desktop parts in Las Vegas, arguing their technologies provide the best performance for AI workloads Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD), the second-biggest maker of computer processors, said its chips are to be used by Dell Technologies Inc for the first time in PCs sold to businesses. The chipmaker unveiled new processors it says would make AMD-based PCs the best at running artificial intelligence (AI) software. Dell has decided to use the chips in some of its computers aimed at business customers, AMD executives said at CES in Las Vegas on Monday. Dell’s embrace of AMD for corporate PCs — it already uses the chipmaker for consumer devices — is another blow for Intel Corp as the company
ADVANCED: Previously, Taiwanese chip companies were restricted from building overseas fabs with technology less than two generations behind domestic factories Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp, would no longer be restricted from investing in next-generation 2-nanometer chip production in the US, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. However, the ministry added that the world’s biggest contract chipmaker would not be making any reckless decisions, given the weight of its up to US$30 billion investment. To safeguard Taiwan’s chip technology advantages, the government has barred local chipmakers from making chips using more advanced technologies at their overseas factories, in China particularly. Chipmakers were previously only allowed to produce chips using less advanced technologies, specifically
MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday said it is teaming up with Nvidia Corp to develop a new chip for artificial intelligence (AI) supercomputers that uses architecture licensed from Arm Holdings PLC. The new product is targeting AI researchers, data scientists and students rather than the mass PC market, the company said. The announcement comes as MediaTek makes efforts to add AI capabilities to its Dimensity chips for smartphones and tablets, Genio family for the Internet of Things devices, Pentonic series of smart TVs, Kompanio line of Arm-based Chromebooks, along with the Dimensity auto platform for vehicles. MeidaTek, the world’s largest chip designer for smartphones
TECH PULL: Electronics heavyweights also attracted strong buying ahead of the CES, analysts said. Meanwhile, Asian markets were mixed amid Trump’s incoming presidency Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) shares yesterday closed at a new high in the wake of a rally among tech stocks on Wall Street on Friday, moving the TAIEX sharply higher by more than 600 points. TSMC, the most heavily weighted stock in the TAIEX, rose 4.65 percent to close at a new high of NT$1,125, boosting its market value to NT$29.17 trillion (US$888 billion) and contributing about 400 points to the TAIEX’s rise. The TAIEX ended up 639.41 points, or 2.79 percent, at 23,547.71. Turnover totaled NT$406.478 billion, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The surge in TSMC follows a positive performance
RSS