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In an environment marked by global economic volatility and geopolitical uncertainties, the stability of Taiwan’s supply chain takes on heightened importance, particularly given Taiwan’s crucial role in the global semiconductor supply chain. In recent years, semiconductor companies in Taiwan have faced increasing inventory pressures, which will reduce their competitiveness and increase operational costs over the long term. Although previous studies have explored the influence of trade facilitation on macroeconomic and trade efficiencies, its specific impacts on the semiconductor industry have been less frequently addressed. This study integrates corporate inventory, trade facilitation, and geopolitical factors within a unified analytical framework to construct a model that explores mediating and moderating effects. This study conducted regression analysis on data from 52 Taiwan-listed integrated circuit companies from 2014 to 2022. Contrary to traditional findings that trade facilitation decreases inventory in other industries, it predominantly fosters inventory accumulation within Taiwan’s semiconductor sector by expanding market size, thereby affecting supply chain efficiency. Moreover, geopolitical factors were found to intensify the effects of trade facilitation on corporate inventory. Elevated geopolitical risks lead to greater inventory accumulation, which ultimately threatens long-term competitiveness and diminishes the semiconductor industry’s advantage in Taiwan, further influencing supply chain efficiency. Consequently, this study recommends that to more accurately forecast market size, semiconductor companies in Taiwan are encouraged to expand their manufacturing investments in Chinese mainland. Additionally, the prudent handling of cross-strait relations by the Taiwan authorities is an important strategy to mitigate geopolitical risks affecting the semiconductor supply chain.

Manufacturing global value chains (GVCs) play a central role in shaping countries’ export competitiveness. However, existing studies have given limited attention to the impact of regional trade agreements (RTAs) on manufacturing GVCs. This study examines the effects of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on manufacturing GVCs. Using the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model, based on the GTAP 10 database with dynamic recursion to 2025, this study simulates various scenarios of tariff and non-tariff barrier (NTB) reductions. This model is linked to a GVC accounting framework to evaluate member countries’ trade performance in manufacturing value added, as well as their participation and position in GVCs. The results show that the CPTPP and RCEP, when implemented separately, significantly boost bilateral value-added trade within their regions, with increases of 99.4% and 65.7%, respectively. Their combined effect further strengthens global value-added trade, raising it by 5.1%. Both agreements also promote greater GVC participation in most manufacturing sectors across member economies, although their influence on sectoral positioning differs across countries. Overall, the findings demonstrate that the CPTPP and RCEP are reshaping regional production networks and affecting manufacturing development in member states. They highlight the growing importance of RTAs in shaping value chains and underscore the need to revitalize global partnerships for sustainable development. For policymakers, the results provide timely evidence on how RTAs can be leveraged to support sustainable growth in manufacturing.

Taiwan, China’s labour market faces numerous challenges. However, previous studies have given limited attention to the impact of regional trade agreements on Taiwan’s labour force. This study examines the impact of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on Taiwan’s labour market by assessing its effects on economic growth, labour demand, and wages. Utilising the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) 10.0 database, this study applies the GTAP model to assess the effects of the RCEP on Taiwan’s labour force. The analysis uses data from 2014 that is dynamically projected to 2023. The findings suggest that the RCEP has a negative impact on both labour demand and wages in Taiwan. However, the effects vary across industries and skill levels. In sectors with sensitive regulations, labour employment is positively affected by ‘reverse trade diversion.’ Unskilled labour is more adversely impacted by the RCEP than skilled labour. Furthermore, the RCEP negatively influences Taiwan’s economic growth, including GDP, social welfare, and trade (both imports and exports). Taiwan’s accession to RCEP could reverse these negative impacts. These findings offer valuable insights into the effects of trade liberalisation on the labour market, highlight the importance of regional economic cooperation, and provide essential information for Taiwan’s economic adaptation strategies in the context of regional economic integration.

The competitiveness of a city is in the process of competitive development. This study uses the Spatial Dubin Model (SDM) technique to explore the influencing factors and spatial spillover effects of the economic competitiveness of 565 cities in Asia. The study finds that the factor spillover bandwidth affecting the improvement of urban competitiveness is primarily concentrated in the range of 1,000 km. Furthermore, with a maximum elasticity value of roughly 11.6%, a city’s spatial spillover effect is a crucial factor in selecting strategies for enhancing its competitiveness level. Financial services, industrial structure, and human resources all have an influence on the level of urban competitiveness. Therefore, in order to better improve the level of regional urban competitiveness, one is to improve the overall level of factors affecting urban competitiveness and enhance the competitiveness of the city itself; the other is to enhance the flow of factors between regions and make full use of the space of factors Spillover effects enhance the level of regional competitiveness; the third is to enhance the spatial interaction between regions and use the externality of urban competitiveness to achieve an overall improvement in the level of regional competitiveness.

Taiwan (China) is a global leader in the electronic information industry. However, previous studies have paid limited attention to the impact of international trade policies on Taiwan’s electronic information sector. This study aims to examine the effects of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on the global value chain (GVC) of Taiwan’s electronic information industry. Using the GTAP 10.0 database, this study applies the GVC-CGE model to measure the GVC participation and position index of the electronic information industry in Taiwan (China), Mainland China, and other RCEP member economies. The results show that, in the short term, the RCEP does not have a significant impact on Taiwan’s electronic information industry’s participation or position in the global value chain. However, in the long term, it is likely to negatively affect Taiwan’s forward participation and position. Economies within the RCEP that possess technological or resource advantages are expected to see improvements in their electronic information industry’s value chain position. As a result, Taiwan’s electronic information industry faces the risk of being displaced in the global division of labor. These findings offer valuable insights into the position of the electronic information industry of Taiwan (China) within the global value chain, highlight the importance of regional economic cooperation, and provide crucial information for the development of this industry. This study reveals how the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership contributes to the regional reconfiguration of global value chains and its potential impacts on Taiwan’s electronic information industry. We suggest that Taiwan should engage more actively in East Asian regional economic cooperation to mitigate these potential negative effects as much as possible.

This paper took the panel data of 1052 heavily-polluting listed companies from both the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2017 to empirically analyze the impact of environmental regulation (ERG) on firm performance (FP). The article introduces a mediating effect model to test the mediating role of corporate tax burden (ETR) within the relationship between ERG on FP. The results showed that: (1) ERG has exerted a significant enhancement effect on the performance of heavily polluted firms via the ETR reduction mechanism. (2) The mediating effect of ETR depends on the duration of ERG. A significant time lag exists before the mediating effect starts to work, and the magnitude of the mediating effect increases with the time lag from the execution of the ERG. (3) The mediating effect of ETR varies significantly with the nature of corporate property rights. It is significant for the state-owned firms, while for non-state-owned firms, there is no evidence supporting the existence of the mediating effect of ETR despite ERG still having a significant direct-impact on FP. Based on these findings, we discuss the policy suggestion to optimize the impact of environmental regulation policies in terms of incentivizing the green development of polluting firms.