US president-elect Donald Trump has indicated he plans to impose tariffs on goods imported from China, Mexico, Canada and other countries.
For Taiwanese manufacturers, it is imperative that measures are taken to respond to any additional tariffs. Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said that the government would assist Taiwanese manufacturers with relocation.
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators have distorted these measures, claiming that the Ministry of Economic Affairs is encouraging businesses to leave Taiwan — clearly contorting fact with fiction.
They have even bizarrely labeled the ministry as the “runaway ministry.”
The KMT legislators’ claims are smoke and mirrors, leading the public to misunderstand the intentions of the ministry and believe that it is encouraging Taiwanese businesses to move abroad.
However, what Kuo actually said is that, because the US would impose tariffs on goods from China, Mexico, Canada and other countries, Taiwanese businesses must relocate from those countries elsewhere.
This could be a Taiwanese company with its manufacturing base in China moving operations to the US, or even back to Taiwan.
It could also mean a company relocating its production base from Mexico or Canada to the US or another country.
One just has to read the news and clearly listen to Kuo’s words to know that he is referring to Taiwanese businesses with production bases in China, Mexico, Canada or other affected countries in this new policy, calling them to relocate in response to Trump’s proposed tariffs.
How does this contradict President William Lai’s (賴清德) foundational position of investing in, strengthening and trusting Taiwan?
How does it contradict Premier Cho Jung-tai’s (卓榮泰) plans for Taiwan’s economic development?
KMT legislators insist on distorting reality in an attempt to stigmatize the administration.
They are deliberately twisting Taiwan’s progress toward international development as an industrial hollowing out merely to advance their own political interests, misleading the public without even the slightest hesitation.
Their tactics are truly despicable.
Wang Chih-chien is a professor at National Taipei University’s Graduate Institute of Information Management.
Translated by Kyra Gustavsen
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