EU courts Taiwanese chip firms with appeal to common values

The EU and Taiwan have shared values and strong democratic principles, making them natural partners with regard to semiconductors, senior EU official Sabine Weyand has said as she made a pitch for the country's chip firms to invest in the bloc.

Home to companies like TSMC, Taiwan has become something of a tech powerhouse and is in a key position to help assuage the global semiconductor shortage that has seen several automotive production lines shut and has begun to impact the consumer electronics industry too.

TSMC is currently constructing a $12 billion semiconductor plant in Arizona, US, but has so far shown no signs of interest in doing the same in Europe.

Read more: Semiconductor market might reach overcapacity by 2023, IDC suggests

Weyand, who is director-general of the European Commission's trade section, gave a speech to a virtual Taiwan-EU investment forum where she said that the impact of the chip shortage on the automotive industry had been a stark reminder of just how essential semiconductors are.

"With the European Chips Act, Europe will step up its efforts to increase production, but we also want to cooperate with our like-minded partners including Taiwan," she said, in reference to proposed legislation by the commission last month.

"Not only because Taiwan excels in the production of semiconductors, but also because technology is ultimately a question of security. We want the EU's digital agenda to be shaped together with our like-minded partners and according to our common values."

While neither the European Union nor any of its member states have formal diplomatic relations with democratically-governed Taiwan, largely due to Chinese claims of sovereignty over the island, Taipei is eager to sign a Bilaterial Investment Agreement with the bloc.

Read more: Looking beyond the semiconductor shortage

Taiwan was added to the EU's list of trade partners in 2015, the year before President Tsai Ing-wen came to power, but since then no further talks have been held.

At the same forum, Tsai said that Taiwan's democracy, freedom and respect for human rights made it a "natural" partner for the EU.

"Starting talks on a bilateral investment agreement can be the beginning of an even more concrete partnership for democracies like us," she said.

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