Several business leaders said yesterday that the government should sign a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) with China as soon as possible to avoid the local economy from being marginalized.
Far Eastern Group (遠東集團) chairman Douglas Hsu (徐旭東) told a business breakfast meeting that tariffs were an important reason why the government should speed up the inking of such a pact with China.
Once the ASEAN Plus One comes into force next year, a free trade zone linking ASEAN and China will go into operation, which could drag down Taiwan’s textile industry — including his own Far Eastern Textile Corp (遠東紡織) — should the two sides fail to sign a CECA.
However, as many academics and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) still oppose a CECA for fear that Taiwan would become like “Hong Kong” or part of China, Hsu said the government should work harder to clarify the differences between a CECA and the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) signed between the territory and China.
“The opposition party should also carefully study what a CECA is, not politicize the issue,” Hsu said.
Morris Chang (張忠謀), chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that as the WTO’s Doha Round talks had collapsed, a regional trade agreement was needed in today’s environment.
“The problem lies in the name — CECA — but the content of the agreement should be beneficial to both sides [of the Taiwan Strait] as it is similar to an FTA [free trade agreement],” Chang said, adding that Taipei and Beijing should arrive at a name that both sides could accept.
Chang Ping-chao (張平沼), chairman of the General Chamber of Commerce (全國商業總會), said that Taiwan could lose its export competitiveness if a CECA were not signed, because it would be hard for the nation’s exporters to sell their products to Southeast Asia if its tariffs were higher.
“This agreement has to be signed, or else Taiwan’s economy will be marginalized,” Chang said.
Theodore Huang (黃茂雄), chairman of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (工商協進會), which organized yesterday’s breakfast gathering, said the inking of CECA was one of the options.
“In terms of the FTA issue, the key is to not let Taiwan’s exports encounter barriers,” Huang said.
Zhang Yazhou was sitting in the passenger seat of her Tesla Model 3 when she said she heard her father’s panicked voice: The brakes do not work. Approaching a red light, her father swerved around two cars before plowing into a sport utility vehicle and a sedan, and crashing into a large concrete barrier. Stunned, Zhang gazed at the deflating airbag in front of her. She could never have imagined what was to come: Tesla Inc sued her for defamation for complaining publicly about the vehicles brakes — and won. A Chinese court ordered Zhang to pay more than US$23,000 in
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
A TAIWAN DEAL: TSMC is in early talks to fully operate Intel’s US semiconductor factories in a deal first raised by Trump officials, but Intel’s interest is uncertain Broadcom Inc has had informal talks with its advisers about making a bid for Intel Corp’s chip-design and marketing business, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Nothing has been submitted to Intel and Broadcom could decide not to pursue a deal, according to the Journal. Bloomberg News earlier reported that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is in early talks for a controlling stake in Intel’s factories at the request of officials at US President Donald Trump’s administration, as the president looks to boost US manufacturing and maintain the country’s leadership in critical technologies. Trump officials raised the
From George Clooney to LeBron James, celebrities in the US have cashed in on tequila’s soaring popularity, but in Mexico, producers of the agave plant used to make the country’s most famous liquor are nursing a nasty hangover. Instead of bringing a long period of prosperity for farmers of the spiky succulent, the tequila boom has created a supply glut that sent agave prices slumping. Mexican tequila exports surged from 224 million liters in 2018 to a record 402 million last year, according to the Tequila Regulatory Council, which oversees qualification for the internationally recognized denomination of origin label. The US, Germany, Spain,
RSS