Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday accused President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration of incompetence in assisting local flat-panel firms in their legal battle against the EU and of failing to prevent a high-tech exodus to China.
AU Optronics Corp, Chimei Innolux Corp, Chunghwa Picture Tubes and HannStar Display Corp, along with South Korean firm LG Display Co, were slapped with a 649 million euro (US$860 million) fine over allegations that they had colluded and created a price-fixing cartel from October 2001 to February 2006.
The fine for the Taiwanese firms amounted to 433.92 million euros.
DPP Legislator Wang Sing-nan (王幸男) said the Taiwanese companies were fined because they fell into a trap set by the South Korean firm.
The South Koreans initiated a price-fixing meeting with Taiwanese firms, Wang alleged, only to turn around and accuse the latter of price-fixing.
The Ma administration failed to protect the interests and reputation of Taiwanese firms, Wang said.
Also at the legislature, Minister of Economic Affairs Shih Yen-shiang (施顏祥) accused Samsung of acting “unethically” by snitching on Taiwanese firms during a European Commission anti-trust investigation.
He said Samsung’s offer to the European investigators to act as a “tainted witness” in exchange for immunity was unethical.
Shih said Samsung’s action of turning informant was not in accord with its own commercial ethics.
“This should not have been done,” he said.
For the time being, Taiwan will not impose any special restrictions on imports from South Korea, he said, reiterating the government’s support for the Taiwanese manufacturers and its willingness to help them deal with new competition rules in the world market.
Wang also said that when the Ma administration was negotiating the terms of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) signed between Taiwan and China in June, flat-panel makers were not listed as part of the “early harvest” list.
This had resulted in many planning to take their business and investments to China and causing Taiwan to lose high-tech industries.
DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) accused the Ma administration of failing to come up with measures to assist the firms in dealing with the EU litigation saying it had instead “ridiculed” them and caused them to move to China, which now threatened to destroy the nation’s high-tech industry.
Pan said that even before the ECFA “early harvest” program comes into force on Jan. 1, Taiwanese high-tech companies were already seeing falling production orders.
Such drops occurred as recently as September, he said.
Foreign investment is also only targeting the stock and real estate markets, showing that the Ma administration has done nothing for the manufacturing industry.
As with the high-tech sector, this has compelled the manufacturing industry to relocate to China, Pan said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS