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EU tells Taiwan to forget about a bilateral investment pact even as bloc seeks more chips
- Officials say deal unnecessary because ‘stable conditions for investors do exist in Taiwan’ amid reluctance behind scenes to anger Beijing
- Position staked despite European Parliament visit by senior Taiwanese minister who described bilateral agreement as ‘top of our agenda’
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Finbarr Berminghamin Brussels
The European Union has told Taiwan to forget about a bilateral investment agreement, which Taipei insists is still “top of our agenda”.
The EU has no desire to begin talks over that or any formal deal with the self-governing island, officials said in Brussels this week, even as the bloc tries to bring investment from Taiwan’s world-leading semiconductor giants to its nascent chips sector.
At an event in the European Parliament on Wednesday, Taiwan’s vice-foreign minister Roy Chun Lee said a “bilateral investment agreement [BIA] is top of our agenda, and has been for many years”, hinting that such an agreement could lead to increased semiconductor investment.
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The European Parliament has also taken up the cause in recent years, passing multiple non-binding resolutions urging the commission to start talks.
However, these advances have been rejected by EU officials, who reiterated there was no economic rationale for such an agreement.
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