Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week.
The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US.
Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them.
Photo: CNA
Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US was the sixth-largest in the world, behind China, Mexico, Vietnam, Ireland and Germany, central bank data showed.
Asked about the possibility of Taiwan being included in the list, Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs Cynthia Kiang (江文若) told lawmakers that the government was taking steps to reduce the trade imbalance, including drawing up a list of potential goods that could be purchased from the US.
For example, state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) last week signed a letter of intent to buy liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Alaska Gasline Development Corp and invest in its Alaska LNG project, Kiang said.
Taiwan is also considering increasing oil imports from the US in a bid to boost energy cooperation and enhance natural gas supply stability, she added.
However, Taiwan’s purchasing targets and the status of its negotiations with the US government cannot be made public for the time being, Kiang said.
Chuang and Kiang made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday, a day after the central bank in a report defended Taiwan’s trade and currency record, saying that the high current account surplus was a structural problem and that Washington understood that.
Taiwan’s trade surplus with the US surged 83 percent last year compared with 2023, with exports to the US hitting a record US$111.4 billion, up 46.1 percent year-on-year, driven by demand for high-tech products such as semiconductors, a sector dominated by Taiwan.
Asked if tariffs on vehicles would be reduced, given that Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on auto imports, Kiang said a specially created trade task force had “already drafted relevant plans,” while Chuang said that import tariffs on health supplements and other products would be reduced.
Ryanair, Transavia, Volotea and other low-cost airlines are feeling the financial pain from high jet fuel prices as a result of the Middle East war and are cutting flights. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has taken a huge chunk of oil supplies off the market, sending the price of jet fuel soaring and triggering fears of shortages that could force airlines to cancel flights. Airlines are not waiting for a lack of supplies to react. “Travel alert: Airlines are cutting thousands of flights right now,” Travel Therapy host Karen Schaler said in an Instagram reel this past weekend.
MANAGING RISKS: Taiwan has secured LNG sufficient to cover 95 percent of electricity demand for next month, UBS said, describing the government’s approach as proactive UBS Group AG has raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 8 percent, up from 6.9 percent previously, and said expansion could reach as high as 8.6 percent if external energy shocks are avoided. The upgrade reflects a stronger-than-expected first-quarter performance and sustained momentum in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven exports, which UBS said are providing a firm foundation for growth despite geopolitical and energy risks. Taiwan’s GDP expanded 13.69 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the fastest growth since the second quarter of 1987, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) reported on Thursday. On a seasonally
The list of Asian stocks that benefit from business partnership with Nvidia Corp is getting longer, as the region further integrates into the artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant’s business ecosystem. Just in the past week, South Korea’s LG Electronics Inc, Taiwan’s Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), as well as China’s Huizhou Desay SV Automotive Co (德賽西威) and Pateo Connect Technology Shanghai Corp (博泰車聯) have become the latest to rally on news of tie-ups, supply-chain participation or product collaboration with the US chip designer. Asian suppliers account for about 90 percent of Nvidia’s production costs, up from about 65 percent last year, data compiled
The Fair Trade Commission’s (FTC) ongoing review of Grab Holdings Ltd’s US$600 million acquisition of Foodpanda Taiwan’s operations, announced on March 23, has taken on fresh urgency as industry experts warn that the transaction could embed significant Chinese cybersecurity vulnerabilities into Taiwan’s digital infrastructure through Grab’s deep ties to autonomous-driving firm WeRide (文遠知行). Less than 16 months after the FTC blocked Uber Eats’ direct attempt to acquire Foodpanda Taiwan — citing potential combined market shares of 80 to 90 percent — the emergence of Grab as the buyer has prompted questions about whether the same competitive harm is simply being rerouted
RSS