The EU and Taiwan have reached an understanding on the World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute over the island’s offshore wind auctions, outlining terms to address the European bloc’s concerns about unfair treatment of imported goods and services.
The move comes after the EU requested WTO consultations on Taiwan’s offshore wind auctions.
The bloc challenged the local content eligibility and award criteria in July, arguing these measures favoured Taiwanese goods and services over imported ones, in breach of WTO non-discrimination rules.
The director-general for trade in the European Commission Sabine Weyand and Taipei’s Minister of Economic Affairs Jyh-Huei Kuo have now exchanged letters setting out the terms of the new understanding.
Taiwan has committed to introducing greater flexibility in the way the winning projects from the latest auction are taken forward. This added flexibility will effectively address past implementation difficulties faced by offshore wind developers, including those from Europe.
Another important achievement is Taiwan’s commitment to no longer include localisation requirements in future allocation rounds, either as eligibility conditions or as award criteria, said the EU.
Provided Taiwan follows through with the outlined commitments, the EU added it does not intend to pursue this matter further within the WTO.
The bloc said addressing barriers in Taiwan’s offshore wind market is crucial for a sector of strategic importance.
The EU wind energy sector alone has an annual turnover of €60bn (2024 figure) and provided around 300,000 jobs in the region in 2022.
Under the REPowerEU targets, the number of employment positions is estimated to increase to 936,000 by 2030.
The EU said it will continue to work with Taiwan to ensure the agreed way forward is fully implemented.