Business and Finance

Taiwan sees food safety as key in opening market to U.S. pork

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/04/01
By: Rita Cheng, Chen Cheng-wei and Lilian Wu

Taipei, April 1 (CNA) Food safety and the rights of farmers will be major considerations

CNA file photo

in taking part in international trade deals, Taiwan said in response to a U.S. report that urged the country to fully open its market to U.S. beef and pork.

The National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers, issued Friday by the United States Trade Representative’s (USTR) Office, said the U.S. will continue to urge Taiwan to open its market fully to U.S. beef and pork based on science, World Organization for Animal Health guidelines and the U.S.’s negligible risk status.

Taiwan has been resistant to allowing imports of U.S. beef and pork that contain traces of the leanness-enhancing veterinary drug ractopamine because of potential health hazards.    [FULL  STORY]

Two Mega International ETFs debut on TWSE

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 02, 2017
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tracking 30 blue-chip stocks were on Friday traded heavily on their first day on the market, indicating growing interest in the investment vehicle, the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) said.

More than 10 million units of both the Mega Taiwan Blue Chip 30 ETF and the Mega Taiwan Blue Chip 30 Daily Inverse ETF issued by Mega International Investment Trust Co (兆豐國際投信) were traded in just the first hour after the market opened at 9am on Friday, the TWSE said.

By the end of the trading session at 1:30pm, 28.9 million units of the Mega Taiwan Blue Chip 30 ETF and 17.58 million units of the Mega Taiwan Blue Chip 30 Daily Inverse ETF had been traded, it added.    [FULL  STORY]

Hon Hai reports highest annual profit in its history

The China Post
Date: April 1, 2017
By: Christine Chou

Taiwan-based Hon Hai Group (鴻海), the world’s largest contract electronics maker and a key

Apple supplier, reported record-busting annual and quarterly

profits in its fourth-quarter financial results filed to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Friday.

Defying expectations of a decline, Hon Hai’s net profit in the last three months of 2016 ended four quarters of year-on-year declines to reach NT$68.77 billion (US$2.26 billion), up from NT$52.93 billion in the fourth quarter of 2015.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan targeted by Trump executive order

Taiwan on list of 16 countries facing trade practices investigation

Taiwan News
Date: 2017/03/31
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Taiwan was one of 16 countries to be investigated for its

(By Associated Press)

contribution to the United States trade deficit in an executive order to be signed by President Donald Trump Friday, reports said.

During last year’s presidential election campaign, Trump took a line which was widely interpreted as heralding a more protectionist and less globalist approach to trade.

One executive order will lead to a 90-day study of abusive trade practices contributing to the nearly US$50 billion U.S. trade deficit. The Commerce Department and the U.S. trade representative will do a country-by-country and product-by-product accounting of the reasons for the imbalance, the New York Times wrote. Officials said they would look for signs of cheating, lax enforcement, inappropriate behavior, currency manipulation and other irregular practices.    [FULL  STORY]

Taiwan not trade competitor to U.S.: senior trade official

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/31
By: Huang Ya-chuan and Elizabeth Hsu

(CNA file photo)

Taipei, March 31 (CNA) With Taiwan being regarded as one of the sources of the huge

(CNA file photo)

U.S. trade deficit, a senior official at the Bureau of Foreign Trade (BOFT) said Friday that Taiwan and the U.S. are not competitors, because over 80 percent of Taiwan’s exports to the U.S. are intermediate goods.

Those products include machine equipment, computer peripherals, automobile parts and components, screws and bolts, said David Hsu (徐大衛,) deputy director-general of the BOFT, in response to reporters’ questions about U.S. President Donald Trump’s actions to crack down
on what he sees as trade abuses against his country.

The content of Taiwan’s exports indicate that Taiwan and the U.S. maintain “mutually beneficial relations,” because only with exports of finished products like computers can there be competitive relations, Hsu said.

Products such as computers account for only a small share of Taiwan’s exports to the U.S., he noted.    [FULL  STORY]

Hon Hai closes year on a positive note

RECORD-HIGH PROFITS:A robust fourth quarter lifted the iPhone assembler’s full-year results, thanks to improving production efficiency, yields and cost management

Taipei Times
Date: Apr 01, 2017
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter

Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a key assembler of Apple Inc products, yesterday reported a record-high net income of NT$148.66 billion (US$4.9 billion) for last year, expanding by 1.22 percent from NT$146.86 billion a year ago.

The full-year results came as a surprise, as the company’s cumulative net profit in the first three quarters of last year plunged 14.94 percent year-on-year to NT$79.89 billion. Higher-than-expected earnings in the final quarter more than made up for disappointing results in the previous quarters.

Earnings per share were NT$8.6 last year, down from NT$9.42 the year before, as stock dividend distribution increased the company’s common shares by 10 percent to 170 billion.

The company’s consolidated revenue fell 2.81 percent to NT$4.35 trillion last year, its first annual contraction since its listing on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 1991.
[FULL  STORY]

Taiwan ‘unlikely to be listed’

The China Post
Date: April 1, 2017
By: Christine Chou, The China Post with CNA

As U.S. President Donald Trump launches a campaign to pinpoint abuses that are causing massive trade deficits for his country, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said it does not see Taiwan as a likely target for any sanctions from the U.S.

More than 80 percent of exports to the U.S. are intermediate goods such as factory machinery, components, computers and car accessories or screw drivers, so most of the exchanges between the U.S. and Taiwan are cooperative, stated the ministry.

“It is only competitive when our final products go against their locally produced goods,” added David Hsu (徐大衛), the Deputy Director-General of the Bureau of Foreign Trade.

Hsu said the U.S. had already hinted at an examination of trade imbalances with other countries two or three months ago, and though Taiwan has been named, the ministry will wait until the U.S. completes their evaluation before it responds to their concerns.
[FULL  STORY]

Report details Taiwan, S Korea export gap

HEADWINDS:Accelerating world trade growth and more competitive regional rivals, such as Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos, will make competition for market share fierce

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 29, 2017
By: Bloomberg

South Korean workers’ wages are rising faster than those of regional rivals and the power of the nation’s sprawling family-run conglomerates, or chaebols, remains unchecked, highlighting a lack of serious economic reform. Yet, manufacturing exports are booming.

Taiwan’s labor costs are cheap and its effective exchange rate far more competitive, yet overseas shipments have been flailing.

The divergence, set out in an Oxford Economics report, deepens given the similar export mixes of the two developed economies — indeed, an indicator of trade similarity stands at 0.67, high given that 1.0 represents an identical mix.

The two also essentially ship goods to the same markets. Yet, South Korean export volume surged 5.3 percent yearly from 2010 to last year, compared with just 1.4 percent for Taiwan.    [FULL  STORY]

Tesla to attend Computex Taipei 2017

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2017/03/28
By: Huang Li-yun and Lilian Wu

Taipei, March 28 (CNA) Computex Taipei 2017 is scheduled to open at the end of May,

CNA file photo

with about 600 firms from around the world in attendance, according to the organizers.

Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said the focus of this year’s show – the largest information communications technology exhibition in Asia – will be the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence.

TAITRA said that in view of the development potential of Taiwan’s IoT, Tesla, the American automaker, is set to attend the fair for the first time.

Another technology giant, Dell, will also be present at the May 30-June 3 show after a hiatus of more than a decade.     [FULL  STORY]

Compal to invest in LeEco subsidiary

DEBT DRIVER:LeEco’s largest smartphone assembler last year booked a total of NT$1.055 billion in bad debt over two straight quarters because of the Chinese firm

Taipei Times
Date: Mar 29, 2017
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter

Laptop computer maker Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) yesterday said it plans to spend NT$3.09 billion (US$102.4 million) to subscribe to 2.15 percent of new shares of a subsidiary of Leshi Internet Information and Technology (LeEco, 樂視), to enhance its strategic partnership with the Chinese firm.

“We believe the strategic investment will benefit both Compal and LeEco in the long term,” Compal president Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) told an investors’ conference at the company’s headquarters in Taipei.

The investment is to expand the two firms’ collaboration from the smartphone business to the Internet of Things and virtual-reality sectors in the long term, Chen said, adding that it would be conducted through a Compal subsidiary in Kunshan, China.

The transaction is expected to be completed before June 21, Compal said.
[FULL  STORY]