A Taipei-based US business group said yesterday that the impact of Taiwan signing the WTO’s Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) on business was still unclear.
The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Taipei said in the latest edition of its monthly publication Topics that following Taiwan’s July 15 entry as the 41st member of the GPA, “multinational companies appear to remain somewhat skeptical about how much Taiwan’s GPA membership will in fact improve their market access.”
Besides the limited degree of English-language information being provided, another major concern is the limited amount of time allotted to prepare a bid — particularly when translation of documents is needed, the AmCham article said.
In particular, companies are given no more than 24 days to prepare a proposal, which the article says is already tight even when days are not lost because of US holidays.
TIMING
International bidders have requested that more time be allowed, as they need to gather documents and certificates from other governments to attest to their previous project experience and have the documents notarized, it said.
An AmCham member company in the engineering field reported another obstacle that prevented it from bidding in a recent infrastructure tender — a requirement that vendors prove that they have professionally licensed engineers on their staff from 12 different engineering disciplines, even though some of those specialties are totally unrelated to the project, AmCham said.
TALENT
The same requirement applies to local companies, but large domestic engineering companies usually employ a broad spectrum of talent, it said.
As such, whether or not the intention was discriminatory, the result was to keep foreign companies from competing for contracts, AmCham said.
“Due to these kinds of disadvantages, many multinational companies have yet to be convinced that Taiwan is abiding by the spirit as well as the letter of the GPA in opening up its procurement market,” AmCham said.
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
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
‘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
RSS