The government will continue to negotiate the exemption of Taiwanese steel exports from the EU’s 25 percent tariffs, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The provisional safeguard measures concerning 23 categories of steel products came into effect yesterday, using the tariff-rate quota system, the European Commission said in a press release on Wednesday.
It would take the comments from all interested parties into consideration in order to reach its final conclusion, at the latest by early next year, the commission said.
The government would urge the EU to end its investigation into steel tariffs and ask for a quota for Taiwanese steel suppliers, the Bureau of Foreign Trade said in a statement, adding that the bureau would join a public hearing on the subject in September.
Citing trade data, the bureau said Taiwanese shipments of the 23 steel products to the EU last year totaled US$1.3 billion, ranking seventh in the European market.
That represented 8.83 percent of Taiwan’s total steel exports last year, data showed.
“The situation is not that tough [for Taiwanese steelmakers], compared with the US’ protectionist measures,” Taiwan Steel and Iron Industries Association (台灣鋼鐵工業同業公會) chairman Lin Horng-nan (林弘男) said by telephone, referring to US President Donald Trump’s order under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to impose a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum.
Lin, who also serves as president of government-backed China Steel Corp (中鋼), said the EU’s 25 percent duties would only be imposed once imports exceed the average imports over the past three years and would be allocated on a first-come, first-serve basis.
“In addition, the temporary tariffs posed by the EU would only remain in place for up to 200 days,” he said.
In related news, Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) yesterday said that the EU’s tariffs on Chinese electric bicycles would have limited effect on Giant Manufacturing Co Ltd (巨大機械), Taiwan’s largest bicycle supplier, which has factories in China and the Netherlands.
The EU yesterday imposed tariffs of between 21.8 and 83.6 percent on all e-bikes from China, and Giant was subject to a rate of 27.5 percent, Reuters reported.
“As far as we know, the company is capable of relocating its manufacturing bases from China to the Netherlands or Taiwan [to avoid the tariffs],” Shen said.
Following a flexible business strategy, Giant earlier this month said it plans to spend 15 million euros (US$17.4 million) to build a plant in northern Hungary, which would be its second manufacturing base in Europe.
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar