US President Donald Trump’s “America first” approach is likely to affect Taiwan’s export performance, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Saturday in response to the US president’s inauguration speech.
Economists urged the government to come up with countermeasures against possible effects of the Trump administration, which has been leaning toward protectionism, as the US is one of the largest buyers of Taiwan-made goods.
Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞) appeared cautious about the US trade policy after Trump pushed the “America first” theme in his inaugural address on Friday.
Lin said that although Trump needs some time to implement his new trade policy, which is expected to give Taiwanese exporters a buffer against US protectionism, Taiwan cannot afford to ignore the possible changes in business ties between the US and China, where Taiwanese firms such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) have built up broad protection sites to penetrate the US market.
After Trump’s inauguration, the White House announced its withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade pact championed by former US president Barack Obama. Taiwan has been keen to join the TPP trade bloc, but Gordon Sun (孫明德), director of the Economic Forecasting Center at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院), said that things have changed and that Taiwan should seek a new approach in an era without the TPP.
Taiwan has been pushing its “new southbound policy,” so it is necessary for the nation to link this policy and its trade ties with the US, Sun said.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, booked its first-ever profit from its Arizona subsidiary in the first half of this year, four years after operations began, a company financial statement showed. Wholly owned by TSMC, the Arizona unit contributed NT$4.52 billion (US$150.1 million) in net profit, compared with a loss of NT$4.34 billion a year earlier, the statement showed. The company attributed the turnaround to strong market demand and high factory utilization. The Arizona unit counts Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc among its major customers. The firm’s first fab in Arizona began high-volume production
VOTE OF CONFIDENCE: The Japanese company is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence linchpins Nvidia Corp and TSMC Softbank Group Corp agreed to buy US$2 billion of Intel Corp stock, a surprise deal to shore up a struggling US name while boosting its own chip ambitions. The Japanese company, which is adding Intel to an investment portfolio that includes artificial intelligence (AI) linchpins Nvidia Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), is to pay US$23 a share — a small discount to Intel’s last close. Shares of the US chipmaker, which would issue new stock to Softbank, surged more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. Softbank’s stock fell as much as 5.4 percent on Tuesday in Tokyo, its
COLLABORATION: Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture would make AI data center equipment, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) would operate a US factory owned by Softbank Group Corp, setting up what is in the running to be the first manufacturing site in the Japanese company’s US$500 billion Stargate venture with OpenAI and Oracle Corp. Softbank is acquiring Hon Hai’s electric-vehicle plant in Ohio, but the Taiwanese company would continue to run the complex after turning it into an artificial intelligence (AI) server production plant, Hon Hai chairman Young Liu (劉揚偉) said yesterday. Softbank would supply manufacturing gear to the factory, and a joint venture between the two companies would make AI data
DOLLAR SIGNS: The central bank rejected claims that the NT dollar had appreciated 10 percentage points more than the yen or the won against the greenback The New Taiwan dollar yesterday fell for a sixth day to its weakest level in three months, driven by equity-related outflows and reactions to an economics official’s exchange rate remarks. The NT dollar slid NT$0.197, or 0.65 percent, to close at NT$30.505 per US dollar, central bank data showed. The local currency has depreciated 1.97 percent so far this month, ranking as the weakest performer among Asian currencies. Dealers attributed the retreat to foreign investors wiring capital gains and dividends abroad after taking profit in local shares. They also pointed to reports that Washington might consider taking equity stakes in chipmakers, including Taiwan Semiconductor
RSS