The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday.
The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei.
The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he said.
Photo: CNA
“For example, we are evaluating situations such as how the government should respond if President Trump raises the tariffs to 10 percent, and what actions the government would take if the tariffs go up to 25 percent,” the minister said.
Kuo’s remarks came as Trump is expected to announce his “reciprocal tariffs” today on all countries that impose duties on US goods in a bid to address rising US trade deficits.
Since returning to office in January, the US president has threatened duties to fix what he says are trade imbalances and push companies to shift manufacturing operations to the US.
Economists have said the upcoming reciprocal tariffs could target the 15 percent of partners that have persistent trade imbalances with the US, a group that US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent dubbed a “dirty 15,” but did not name.
Taiwan is likely to be included in the list, along with China, the EU, Mexico, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea, Canada and India that report sizeable goods deficits with the US. Last year, Taiwan had the seventh-highest trade surplus with the US, surging 83 percent to US$73.9 billion from a year earlier, US customs data showed.
On Monday, Trump said he could announce as early as last night exactly what “reciprocal tariffs” would be imposed.
Asked for details, he told reporters that “you’re going to see in two days, which is maybe tomorrow night or probably Wednesday.”
“We’re going to be very nice, relatively speaking, we’re going to be very kind,” he added.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the goal for today would be to announce “country-based tariffs,” although Trump remains committed to imposing separate, sector-specific charges.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s advisers pitched imposing a 20 percent global tariff to hit almost all US trading partners. Trump has remained vague, saying his tariffs would be “far more generous” than ones already levied against US products.
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