The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said that it plans to increase purchases of US goods such as agricultural products and crude oil in an attempt to narrow its trade surplus with the US and avoid being placed on Washington’s currency monitoring list.
Taiwan is at risk of being added to the currency manipulation watch list, as the nation’s trade surplus with the US is expected to surpass the US$20 billion threshold set by the US, the central bank said.
In the first 10 months of this year, Taiwan saw its trade surplus with the US climb to US$19.26 billion, statistics from the monetary policymaker showed.
The three criteria used by the US Department of the Treasury to determine whether a country or territory is a currency manipulator are: a significant trade surplus with the US, a material current-account surplus and involvement in persistent one-sided intervention in foreign exchange markets. A country makes it on the US Treasury's watchlist if it’s met two of three criteria.
“The trade spat between China and the US helped local companies gain more orders, which inflated [Taiwan’s] trade surplus,” Minister of Economic Affairs Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) told reporters on the sidelines of a news conference for the launch of cloud services for local machine tool makers in Taipei.
“We have to deal with this issue. I have requested state-run companies to review [their procurement plans],” Shen said. “ We have to do something about it.”
CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油), Taiwan Power Co (台電) and Taiwan Sugar Corp (台糖) could increase their imports of goods from the US, Shen said.
CPC has increased crude oil purchases from the US to make up 40 percent of its total crude oil imports this year, up from 30 percent last year, which would help narrow the trade gap between Taiwan and US, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Tseng Wen-sheng (曾文生) told reporters at a year-end media gathering on Monday.
The company would also consider purchasing more natural gas from the US, depending on demand and natural gas prices, Tseng said.
The ministry also plans to purchase more wheat, soybeans, beef and pork from the US, the Chinese-language Economic Daily News reported yesterday.
Shares in Taiwan closed at a new high yesterday, the first trading day of the new year, as contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) continued to break records amid an artificial intelligence (AI) boom, dealers said. The TAIEX closed up 386.21 points, or 1.33 percent, at 29,349.81, with turnover totaling NT$648.844 billion (US$20.65 billion). “Judging from a stronger Taiwan dollar against the US dollar, I think foreign institutional investors returned from the holidays and brought funds into the local market,” Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺) said. “Foreign investors just rebuilt their positions with TSMC as their top target,
REVENUE PERFORMANCE: Cloud and network products, and electronic components saw strong increases, while smart consumer electronics and computing products fell Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday posted 26.51 percent quarterly growth in revenue for last quarter to NT$2.6 trillion (US$82.44 billion), the strongest on record for the period and above expectations, but the company forecast a slight revenue dip this quarter due to seasonal factors. On an annual basis, revenue last quarter grew 22.07 percent, the company said. Analysts on average estimated about NT$2.4 trillion increase. Hon Hai, which assembles servers for Nvidia Corp and iPhones for Apple Inc, is expanding its capacity in the US, adding artificial intelligence (AI) server production in Wisconsin and Texas, where it operates established campuses. This
H200 CHIPS: A source said that Nvidia has asked the Taiwanese company to begin production of additional chips and work is expected to start in the second quarter Nvidia Corp is scrambling to meet demand for its H200 artificial intelligence (AI) chips from Chinese technology companies and has approached contract manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to ramp up production, sources said. Chinese technology companies have placed orders for more than 2 million H200 chips for this year, while Nvidia holds just 700,000 units in stock, two of the people said. The exact additional volume Nvidia intends to order from TSMC remains unclear, they said. A third source said that Nvidia has asked TSMC to begin production of the additional chips and work is expected to start in the second
US President Donald Trump on Friday blocked US photonics firm HieFo Corp’s US$3 million acquisition of assets in New Jersey-based aerospace and defense specialist Emcore Corp, citing national security and China-related concerns. In an order released by the White House, Trump said HieFo was “controlled by a citizen of the People’s Republic of China” and that its 2024 acquisition of Emcore’s businesses led the US president to believe that it might “take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States.” The order did not name the person or detail Trump’s concerns. “The Transaction is hereby prohibited,”
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