EU-Taiwan trade meet backs deal on offshore wind investment conditions

Brussels, Dec. 18 (CNA) Taiwan and Europe have voiced their backing for an agreement signed last month to settle a dispute over investment conditions in Taiwan's offshore wind sector at the annual EU-Taiwan Trade and Investment Dialogue (TID) in Brussels.

The European Commission's Directorate-General for Trade (DG Trade) said in a statement after the meeting Tuesday that the two sides "expressed their appreciation for the recently achieved understanding on offshore wind investment conditions."

The EU also "emphasized the importance of effectively implementing this agreement."

That referred to a deal to resolve a dispute at the World Trade Organization (WTO) initiated by the EU in July over Taiwan's handling of its offshore wind market and specifically its local content requirements for offshore wind projects.

Taiwan agreed to drop localization requirements in future tenders, "either as eligibility conditions or as award criteria," and committed to introducing greater flexibility "in the way the winning projects from the latest auction are taken forward," the DG Trade said in a statement on Nov. 8.

At Tuesday's meeting, the EU also raised its longstanding market access concerns on agri-food exports, and trade, economic security, and supply chain issues were also discussed.

The meeting was co-chaired by Economics Affairs Minister Kuo Jyh-huei (郭智輝) and Sabine Weyand, director-general of DG Trade, who were also involved in resolving the offshore wind dispute in November.

Kuo is currently in Europe on a trip that will also take him to Germany to visit the site where Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) is building a factory and to the Czech Republic to attend the unveiling ceremony of the "Taiwan Trade and Investment Center."

Taiwan and the EU have held regular "Economic and Trade Dialogue" meetings since 1981. Starting in 2022, the EU raised the level of dialogue to the ministerial level for the first time and changed its name to the "Trade and Investment Dialogue."

Taiwan ranks as the EU's 13 largest trading partner. In 2023, bilateral trade in goods totaled 78.3 billion euros (US$82.21 billion, or about NT$2.7 trillion).

The EU maintained its role as Taiwan's largest foreign investor in 2023 with investments of 2.9 billion euros, of which the majority was concentrated in the offshore wind sector, according to the statement.