US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose up to 100 percent tariffs on Taiwan’s semiconductor exports to the US to encourage chip manufacturers to move their production facilities to the US, but experts are questioning his strategy, warning it could harm industries on both sides.
“I’m very confused and surprised that the Trump administration would try and do this,” Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst and founder of TECHnalysis Research in California, said in an interview with the Central News Agency on Wednesday.
“It seems to reflect the fact that they don’t understand how the semiconductor industry really works,” O’Donnell said.
Photo: Cheng I-hwa, AFP
Economic sanctions would not boost chip manufacturing in the US overnight, because building a chip fab requires billions of dollars and many years of construction, he said.
He described Trump’s economic policies as “shortsighted,” adding that they would not diminish Taiwan’s leading position in advanced chip manufacturing, but rather would drive up the cost of chips made in Taiwan.
“It will have a huge negative impact on every tech-related industry,” O’Donnell said.
The proposed tariffs would harm Taiwanese chipmakers, as well as US tech companies that depend heavily on their chip supplies, including Apple Inc, Nvidia Corp, Qualcomm Inc, Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, he said.
Brian Peck, a former official at the Office of the US Trade Representative, told CNA in a separate interview that the US tech industry, which relies on Taiwanese chips, would face higher prices in the short term.
Those increased costs ultimately would be passed on to American consumers, said Peck, who is an assistant professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.
In the long term, tariffs would put pressure on Taiwan’s semiconductor producers, he said in an interview.
Suppliers of semiconductors based in Taiwan would probably face a decline in sales, because US companies “would be forced either to move manufacturing to the US or find other suppliers that are not subject to the same level of tariffs,” Peck said.
Trump is likely to follow through on the tariff threats, if his goal is to bring chipmaking back to the US, but the US president’s actions have been “somewhat unpredictable,” he said.
Trump might be using the tariff issue as leverage to push Taipei to increase defense spending or make other concessions, as seen in his dealings with Mexico and Canada, Peck said.
In that case, “I think, those would be some of the issues that need to be discussed and worked out” between Taiwan and the US, he said.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS