European chamber urges Taiwan to strengthen AI regulations

Taipei, Nov. 20 (CNA) The European Chamber of Commerce Taiwan (ECCT) on Thursday called on Taiwan to establish comprehensive legislation for artificial intelligence, saying the country is benefiting from an AI boom but still lacks "human-centered" regulations.

At a press conference releasing its 2026 position paper, ECCT Chair Henry Chang (張瀚書) said the European Union and the United States differ significantly in their regulatory approaches, with the U.S. being "innovation-driven and market-driven," while the EU is "rights-first, centralized and risk-based."

The chamber said Taiwan's AI rules should include workplace safeguards to prevent unilateral adverse decisions against employees, and warned that creators' intellectual property rights will remain vulnerable unless authorities amend the Copyright Act.

The Cabinet approved a draft Artificial Intelligence Basic Act in late August, but its review in the Legislature has stalled since then.

These AI-related issues were among 192 recommendations raised by the ECCT's 25 industry and committee groups, including 64 new ones.

The chamber also highlighted Taiwan's shrinking labor force because of population aging and urged the government to remove recruitment and brokerage fees to better protect migrant workers and align with international standards.

"This would also help prevent the manufacturing sector from facing detention of goods or trade sanctions by the U.S. and European countries due to labor rights violations," the ECCT said in a statement.

In addition, the chamber raised concerns about Taiwan's slow progress in expanding green energy.

In response, National Development Council Deputy Minister Jan Fang-guan (詹方冠) said Taiwan amended several rules on hiring foreign talent in August, including exempting graduates of the world's top 1,500 universities (previously the top 500) from a two-year work-experience requirement.

Jan added that the government has also updated its 2030 emissions-reduction target from 24 percent (±1 percent) below 2005 levels to 28 percent (±2 percent) below.

Chang, the ECCT chair, said Taiwan has made improvements on 24 percent of the issues listed in the ECCT's 2025 position paper, the best performance in a decade, and he thanked the government for its efforts.