There is no quid-pro-quo “chips for vaccines” deal, Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua (王美花) said yesterday, ahead of a virtual meeting to be held today between Taiwanese and US semiconductor businesses.
Several countries, including Germany, the US and Japan, have reached out to Taiwan through diplomatic channels to ask for help to solve a global auto chip shortage.
Wang said she has also gone through diplomatic channels to ask the German government for help with COVID-19 vaccines for Taiwan.
Photo: STR/AFP/China OUT
However, those issues are not related, Wang told a news conference in Taipei.
“The auto chip issue and the vaccine issue are both serious, but completely separate matters,” she said.
Wang also denied that the government put undue pressure on local semiconductor manufacturers to prioritize the production of auto chips to obtain vaccines from foreign governments.
“Talk of the economics ministry forcing chipmakers to prioritize auto chips in contravention of market mechanisms is totally inaccurate,” Wang said. “Taiwan is a free and democratic country. It is beyond the government’s power to interfere with private commercial contracts.”
The ministry last week held an ad hoc lunch meeting with local chipmakers to make the case for foreign automakers that are suffering from the chip shortage.
Any decision to adjust auto chip supply is up to the chipmakers, Wang said.
Today’s virtual meeting between Taiwanese and US business interests is a closed-door meeting to ensure that all parties can talk freely, Wang said, adding that it would center not only on auto chips, but the semiconductor supply chain as a whole.
“The global demand for semiconductors will only go up, given rising demand for 5G, AI [artificial intelligence] and electric vehicle applications. Taiwan plays an important role and we need to figure out how to play it well,” she said.
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