As regular readers of this publication are well aware, the American Chamber of Commerce in Taipei is convinced that Taiwan’s participation in the emerging regional trade grouping known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be absolutely essential for the future well-being of this economy. Exclusion from the TPP in the years ahead will diminish the…
AmCham Taipei had expected that by the time this April issue of Taiwan Business TOPICS was published, the 2015 TIFA Council meeting under the U.S.-Taiwan Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) would already have been conducted. The 2013 round of those bilateral trade negotiations was held in March that year in Taipei, and the 2014…
For two days in late January, a total of 173 delegates – government officials, legislators, scholars, business leaders, and representatives of civic groups – attended a National Energy Conference called by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The group debated the crucial issue facing Taiwan following President Ma Ying-jeou’s decision last year to suspend construction of…
In the recently released 2015 Index of Economic Freedom conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank The Heritage Foundation in association with the Wall Street Journal, Taiwan received its best score ever, ranking as the world’s 14th freest economy (up two places from last year) and fifth in the Asia-Pacific. The exercise measures such factors…
In recent years Taiwan has made great strides in bolstering its protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) by passing new legislation, tightening enforcement, and raising awareness among judges and prosecutors of the importance of the issue. The improvements in copyright, patent, and trademark protection – and in the past few years of trade secrets –…
Even after repeated food-safety incidents in Taiwan, the recent adulterated edible-oil crisis has come as a drastic shock due to the magnitude of its scope and the utter unscrupulousness of certain offenders. As an organization dedicated to ethical and responsible business practices as one of its core values, AmCham Taipei finds it deeply distressing that…
