Taipei: Taiwan would be "happy" to see its chip companies invest in the EU, but closer ties with the bloc, similar to Taipei's relations with the US, could help open the door for that. In an effort to address a persistent global chip shortage, the EU has been courting Taiwan, a major semiconductor producer, as one of the "like-minded" collaborators it would like to work with under the European Chips Act unveiled in February.
While Taiwan and the EU held high-level trade negotiations last month, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) which had previously indicated that it was in the early stages of considering a potential expansion into Germany stated less than a week after the meeting that it had no concrete plans for factories in Europe.
While taiwan's administration couldn't speak for chip companies.Taiwan's deputy economy minister Chen Chern-chyi, whose portfolio includes economic relations with Europe, noted late on Monday that they haven't explicitly stated they won't be visiting Europe.
However, the government's stance is that we are pleased to see our companies have a global presence, including in the United States and Europe, both of which are our partners in similar industries. In terms of policy, we are naturally very pleased to see them deploy globally and would be happy to see it happen.
Even in the absence of formal diplomatic relations, Taipei has been eager to strengthen ties with other democracies in response to persistent Chinese political and military pressure intended to compel Taiwan to accept China's sovereignty claims. Taiwan's GlobalWafers Co Ltd. failed in a 4.35 billion euro takeover attempt of German chip supplier Siltronic in February, which was a setback for EU ambitions.
Chen claimed he was unaware that any fresh applications for EU chip projects had been submitted to the ministry, which must approve significant overseas investments, so far this year. He also said that Taiwan wanted to have close, institutionalised ties with the EU in terms of trade, technology, and economic dialogue, similar to those they have with the US, where TSMC is building a $12 billion factory and GlobalWafers is building a $5 billion plant.
A bilateral investment agreement between Taiwan and the EU has also been pushed, but no progress has been made.Chen stated that although that is still a policy objective, deals that are currently "more achievable" are not being disregarded. GlobalWafers is utilising the ongoing geopolitical unrest and the global chip shortage to address the resiliency of the US semiconductor supply chain by constructing a 300-millimeter silicon wafer factory with advanced nodes.
Taiwan would like to enter into a free trade agreement with the European Union. Taiwan is also keen to enter into the number of FTAs it has with other EU countries to strengthen its economy.