Taipei would help Taiwanese firms relocate their China-based production plants if US president-elect Donald Trump carries out his threat to impose a 60 percent tariff on Chinese-made goods, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Trump’s victory in the US presidential election has left world leaders, business owners and stock markets grappling with the potential impact of his return to the White House.
During the election campaign, Trump vowed to get tougher on China, promising to slap 60 percent tariffs on all Chinese goods entering the US.
Photo: Liao Chia-ning, Taipei Times
“We will come up with some assistance very soon to our Taiwanese business people on how to transfer their production bases so they would not be subjected to a 60 percent tariff,” Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei.
Kuo did not provide further details on the measures.
Many Taiwanese companies have set up factories in China during the country’s economic opening over the last four decades, but investment has fallen sharply in recent years owing to regional tech disputes.
From 2019 to 2021, as a trade war raged between Beijing and Washington, Taipei offered Taiwanese businesses in China incentives to return to Taiwan. They included two years free rent in the economic ministry’s industrial zones, labor subsidies and cheaper loans.
Trump has described “tariff” as the most beautiful word in the dictionary and his second presidential term promises sweeping measures on all US$3 trillion worth of US imported goods. He has promised at least a 10 percent tariff on all imports, and a higher level of 60 percent or more on Chinese goods.
Kuo said Trump’s suggested 10 percent tariff on all US imports would have a limited effect on Taiwan. However, Trump’s proposed 60 percent levy on Chinese-made products would have a greater impact on Taiwanese firms operating in China, the minister said.
Regarding trade talks between Taiwan and the US, Yen Huai-shing (顏慧欣), an official at the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations, said at the meeting that Taiwan has long had a good trade relationship with the US and that the office would keep in contact with the US president-elect’s team and confirm trade negotiation strategies.
International Trade Administration Director-General Cynthia Kiang (江文若) said that Taiwan and the US have already signed the first agreement in the “US-Taiwan Initiative on 21st-Century Trade.”
However, the agreement, which still requires the approval of the US Congress, would not come into effect for some time, Kiang said.
After Trump assumes office, the Ministry of Economic Affairs would emphasize Taiwan-US trade discussions, she said.
Additional reporting by CNA
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