Taiwan shouldn’t hurry to sign an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China unless Beijing promises not to block the country’s chances of also inking bilateral agreements with ASEAN countries, said Liang Kuo-yuan (梁國源), president of Polaris Research Institute (寶華綜合經濟研究院).
“We should wait and keep negotiating with China,” Liang told the Taipei Times last week. “We’ve got to try to get China’s understanding or promise that it will let Taiwan sign other kinds of [economic] framework [agreements] with ASEAN countries.”
Liang said both Singapore and Vietnam — albeit they are exceptional cases — should have an interest in signing bilateral agreements with Taiwan after the ECFA with China is signed.
He said Taiwan should be at ease if its economic relationship with China was similar to the relationship between an elder brother and a younger brother.
“However, our relationship with China should never turn into that of a father and his son,” Lai warned.
Citing an Asian Development Bank report in 2007, Liang said Taiwan would be negatively impacted by the implementation of ASEAN Plus One, followed by ASEAN Plus Two and Three.
It will therefore be important for the economy that Taiwan finds ways to penetrate the Asian trade bloc because ASEAN Plus Three accounts for more than 40 percent of the world’s population, he said.
An ECFA with China won’t be powerful enough for the nation to enhance ties with ASEAN countries if Taiwan is blocked from inking pacts with individual ASEAN countries or the bloc as a whole, he said.
Despite the fact an ECFA is expected to trigger capital inflows to Taiwan, Liang said he expects the central bank will keep the New Taiwan dollar’s exchange rate as stable as possible, within a range of NT$31.5 and NT$32.3 against the US dollar.
“NT$31.5 may be the highest threshold the central bank could tolerate,” Liang said.
He reiterated his view that the central bank will not raise interest rates before June given that the economic recovery is still nascent.
“The economy has improved, but don’t get too excited about it,” he said.
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
CHANGING JAPAN: Nvidia-powered AI services over cellular networks ‘will result in an artificial intelligence grid that runs across Japan,’ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said Softbank Group Corp would be the first to build a supercomputer with chips using Nvidia Corp’s new Blackwell design, a demonstration of the Japanese company’s ambitions to catch up on artificial intelligence (AI). The group’s telecom unit, Softbank Corp, plans to build Japan’s most powerful AI supercomputer to support local services, it said. That computer would be based on Nvidia’s DGX B200 product, which combines computer processors with so-called AI accelerator chips. A follow-up effort will feature Grace Blackwell, a more advanced version, the company said. The announcement indicates that Softbank Group, which until early 2019 owned 4.9 percent of Nvidia, has secured a