Taiwan is included in the first group for trade negotiations with the US, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he seeks to shield Taiwanese exporters from a 32 percent tariff.
In Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on Fox News on Thursday that he would speak to his Taiwanese and Israeli counterparts yesterday about tariffs after holding a long discussion with the Vietnamese earlier.
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday postponed punishing levies on multiple trade partners, including Taiwan, for three months after trillions of US dollars were wiped off global markets.
Photo: screen grab from the Presidential Office’s Flickr page
He has maintained a 10 percent blanket duty on most countries, but paused plans for steeper measures on others, except China.
“We want everyone to know that Taiwan is on the first negotiating list of the US government,” Lai told a gathering of machinery and equipment manufacturers.
“The government will be well prepared to negotiate with the United States to ensure our national interests and protect the future development of the industry,” he said.
Lai said Taiwan had received a “positive response” to the “countermeasures and plans” it had sent to Washington.
Taiwan currently faces a 10 percent tariff and its talks would seek to strike a deal with Washington to bring that down to zero, Lai said.
Negotiators would also discuss boosting procurement and investment in the US, and eliminating non-tariff and other trade barriers, he said.
He said that Taiwan also has to tackle the issue of “origin laundering,” referring to the practice of companies misrepresenting the location of where their product was made to avoid trade penalties.
He called for unity across the public and private sectors, as well as between the ruling and opposition parties, in the face of the US tariff shocks, adding that Taiwan could overcome the challenge and “turn crisis into opportunities” through collective efforts.
Taiwan ranked seventh among the countries that have trade surpluses with the US, reaching US$73.9 billion last year.
About 60 percent of its exports to the US are information and communications technology (ICT) products, including semiconductors.
Chips were excluded from Trump’s new tariffs.
Yesterday’s meeting followed two previous discussions Lai had with representatives from the ICT and non-tech industries, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) at the presidential residence last weekend.
In response, the Taiwan Machine Tool and Accessory Builders’ Association (TMBA, 台灣工具機暨零組件公會) urged the government to help its members mitigate the impact from the US tariffs, as customers are delaying orders in the face of uncertainty due to the levies.
The government should strive to narrow the “reciprocal” tariff gap between Taiwan and its global rivals through the talks during the 90-day pause, it said.
The government should also ease the criteria for businesses to apply for government relief and urge local banks not to tighten credit, which is essential for SMEs to stabilize cash flow and ease operational pressure, TMBA chairman Chen Po-chia (陳伯佳) said.
The association in a statement further suggested setting up a task force comprising representatives from relevant government agencies to help businesses tackle logistics, working capital and custom hurdles during this period.
It said it hoped the government would help coordinate with airlines to increase commercial services to the US during the 90-day pause to reduce risks of export delays.
The government could help association members expand the domestic market by increasing adoption of locally made machinery tools by state-owned and private enterprises by offering incentives for investing in automation and smart manufacturing equipment.
It should actively cultivate talent and set up a system to better manage potential risks, it added.
Taiwanese machinery makers exported US$77.46 million to the US during the first three months of this year, accounting for 17 percent of total machinery exports, TMBA data showed.
That made the US the second-biggest export destination after China’s 26.8 percent.
Additional reporting by CNA and Reuters
ACTION PLAN: Taiwan would expand procurement from the US and encourage more companies to invest in the US to deepen bilateral cooperation, Lai said The government would not impose reciprocal tariffs in retaliation against US levies, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he announced five strategies to address the issue, including pledging to increase Taiwanese companies’ investments in the US. Lai has in the past few days met with administrative and national security officials, as well as representatives from various industries, to explore countermeasures after US President Donald Trump on Wednesday last week announced a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese imports. In a video released yesterday evening, Lai said that Taiwan would not retaliate against the US with higher tariffs and Taiwanese companies’ commitments to
Intelligence agents have recorded 510,000 instances of “controversial information” being spread online by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) so far this year, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report yesterday, as it warned of artificial intelligence (AI) being employed to generate destabilizing misinformation. The bureau submitted a written report to the Legislative Yuan in preparation for National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee today. The CCP has been using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society by commenting on controversial issues such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) investments in the
HELPING HAND: The steering committee of the National Stabilization Fund is expected to hold a meeting to discuss how and when to utilize the fund to help buffer the sell-off The TAIEX plunged 2,065.87 points, or 9.7 percent, to close at 19,232.35 yesterday, the highest single-day percentage loss on record, as investors braced for US President Donald Trump’s tariffs after an extended holiday weekend. Amid the pessimistic atmosphere, 945 listed companies led by large-cap stocks — including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Largan Precision Co (大立光) — fell by the daily maximum of 10 percent at the close, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. The number of listed companies ending limit-down set a new record, the exchange said. The TAIEX plunged by daily maxiumu in just
‘COMPREHENSIVE PLAN’: Lin Chia-lung said that the government was ready to talk about a variety of issues, including investment in and purchases from the US The National Stabilization Fund (NSF) yesterday announced that it would step in to staunch stock market losses for the ninth time in the nation’s history. An NSF board meeting, originally scheduled for Monday next week, was moved to yesterday after stocks plummeted in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of 32 percent tariffs on Taiwan on Wednesday last week. Board members voted to support the stock market with the NT$500 billion (US$15.15 billion) fund, with injections of funds to begin as soon as today. The NSF in 2000 injected NT$120 billion to stabilize stocks, the most ever. The lowest amount it
RSS