The numbering system used on foreign nationals’ alien resident certificates (ARCs) changed in January to match that of Taiwanese citizens’ IDs, removing a longstanding hindrance to carrying out everyday activities such as online banking, ticket booking, and registration for medical appointments. Before the change was made, whether an ARC number could be entered successfully online…

The revised cosmetics law shows promise, but implementation issues remain. Of the eight issues raised the previous year that AmCham Taipei’s 2019 Taiwan White Paper deemed to have been fully resolved, half related to a single industry – cosmetics: Clarifying the definition of cosmetics under the law to avoid creating technical barriers to trade. Clearly…

A “member-choice” system is due to get a two-year trial. Taiwan has historically been conservative in its approach to pensions, preferring to assure its citizens a guaranteed if modest return. But as AmCham Taipei has long argued in its annual Taiwan White Paper, that approach is not necessarily in the best interest of all investors….

Taiwan should adopt the MDSAP multilateral approach to plant audit reports. In this year’s Taiwan White Paper, AmCham Taipei’s Medical Devices Committee called attention to problems arising from Taiwan’s documentary requirements for medical device companies to qualify to utilize the government’s simplified approach to auditing manufacturing facilities in the United States. As part of the…

When AmCham Taipei committees met with government regulators on February 26 in the third quarterly meeting convened by the National Development Council (NDC) to discuss unresolved issues from the Chamber’s Taiwan White Paper, one additional item was included in the agenda. Although the issue arose following publication of the 2017 White Paper, it was considered…