萬國法律事務所

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs reported to the Executive Yuan on the “Taiwan-U.S. partnership in the reorganization of global supply chains” on 22 October 2020.  Su Tseng-Chang (蘇貞昌), the Premier of the Executive Yuan, stated that the four major aspects of Taiwan-U.S. supply chain cooperation include “semiconductor, communications, AI, and other cutting-edge technology industries”, “green energy and innovative industries”, “healthy combat readiness industries” and “developing global markets”, which are currently the areas with the most potential for strategic cooperation at this present stage.  If the cooperation is successful, experts estimate that it will create hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars in value for the U.S., and Taiwan can further consolidate its key position in the global supply chain.
 
Premier Su, at the meeting of the Executive Yuan on 22 October, indicated that Taiwan is actively seeking to negotiate a BTA (Bilateral Trade Agreement) with the U.S.  The U.S. Congress and people also called on U.S. President Trump to initiate BTA negotiations.  The cooperation between Taiwan “high-level hardware manufacturing” and the U.S. “high-tech development” will certainly create huge economic benefits that “make Taiwan rise again” and “make the U.S. economy grow.”
 
Premier Su pointed out that if Taiwan and the U.S. can successfully cooperate in the four strategic areas, experts predict that additional value worth at least hundreds of billions of U.S. dollars and more than one million job opportunities can be created for the U.S., while Taiwan can also further consolidate its key position in the global supply chain.
 
Premier Su asked the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Office of Trade Negotiations, and other relevant departments to continue to promote strategic dialogue and negotiations with the U.S., and to propose an industrial strategic cooperation plan as soon as possible, build a cooperation platform between domestic industries and the U.S.  businesses and to strengthen Taiwan-U.S. economic cooperation to jointly promote reorganization of the supply chain.
 
Yang Chih-Ching (楊志清), deputy director of the Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, stated that Taiwan’s market share of hardware  communications, including laptops, cable modems, server motherboards, and routers, is first in the world.  In the future, the two parties can strengthen cooperation on mobile devices, AI high-performance data computing technology, self-driving cars, and the Internet.  The combination of “Made in Taiwan” and the U.S. brands is a mutually beneficial win-win situation that can also eventually result in the establishment of a worldwide marketing network.  Taiwan-U.S. cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region is a strong strategic alliance and is conducive to the resurgence of U.S. manufacturing and the consolidation of Taiwan’s key role in the global supply chain.
 
Practical examples of resurgent U.S. manufacturing include electric car leader Tesla’s supply chain that is returning to the U.S., and investment in Taiwan is completely mutually beneficial.  TSMC’s establishment of factories in the U.S. is an example of cooperation in the field of cutting-edge technologies, as Taiwan’s semiconductor manufacturing expertise combines with U.S. technology research and development advantages.
 
In addition to semiconductors, Chen Cheng-Chi (陳正祺), Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, noted that in terms of “innovative industries,” Taiwan is conducting 5G network research with Cisco, and Google has established Taiwan R&D centers with Amazon.  Additionally, in cooperation with the “Healthy Combat Readiness Industry,” the pharmaceuticals R&D in the U.S. complements the energy of Taiwan’s medical materials assembly sector.  As for “energy,” Taiwan’s natural gas power generation is expected to account for 50% of the fuel used in Taiwan in 2025, whereas in the past, Taiwan mostly imported natural gas from the Middle East.  In order to minimize risks of shortages, Taiwan has increased imports from the U.S.  Moreover, the establishment of a natural gas power plant in Taiwan by GE Company from the U.S. will facilitate Taiwan’s energy transition.  Chen Cheng-Chi emphasized that “Taiwan-U.S. cooperation is not only ongoing in the manufacturing sector, but has also moved on to cooperation in the next digital field.”