Taiwan’s exports to nations belonging to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) expanded 23.8 percent in the first nine months of this year, while imports grew 14.9 percent, warranting Taiwan’s bid to join the free-trade bloc, data from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics (DGBAS) showed on Thursday last week.
The data was released one year after Taiwan announced its aim to join the CPTPP, which comprises 11 member states: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
The CPTPP’s members account for 13.4 percent of global GDP, at about US$13.5 trillion in total, making it one of the world’s largest free-trade areas, along with the North American Free Trade Agreement, the EU and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the DGBAS said.
Photo courtesy of the Singaporean Ministry of Trade and Industry via CNA
DGBAS Statistics Department head Tsai Yu-tai (蔡鈺泰) said that Taiwan’s increase in trade with CPTPP member states had a lot to do with Taiwan benefitting from the contactless economy created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
That benefit is fading, explaining why exports lost momentum last quarter and might decline further this quarter and early next year, Tsai said.
Taiwan on Sept. 22 last year filed an official request to join the CPTPP and has made becoming a member its top policy priority, updating its fishing, medicine, investment, patent, trademark and intellectual property regulations to align with the trade body’s standards, the National Development Council has said.
CPTPP membership would positively affect local makers of textiles, garments, machinery and machine tools that remain heavily dependent on traditional manufacturing procedures and are sensitive to tariff changes, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) said.
As Taiwan’s textile products are relatively competitive in Asia, joining the CPTPP would boost that advantage, the Taipei-based think tank said.
While pursuing CPTPP membership, the government must not forget to boost relations with individual member economies, it said.
Exports last year to CPTPP markets soared 33 percent annually to US$94.99 billion, better than an average 9.3 percent increase over the previous five years, DGBAS data showed.
Shipments of electronics last year contributed US$41.32 billion, or 43.5 percent, followed by base metals and related products at US$8.31 billion, and information and communications technology products at US$7.8 billion, the DGBAS said.
Imports from CPTPP areas last year totaled US$108.61 billion, up 30 percent year-on-year, it said.
Electronics, mineral products and machinery were the top three import sectors, it said.
‘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
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS