Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday outlined five measures to tackle rules of origin circumvention, which he said is one of four key areas in Taiwan-US tariff negotiations.
The measures are stronger monitoring of goods from China, communicating with Taiwanese businesses, establishing a blacklist of violators, imposing stricter penalties and applying anti-dumping tools, Kuo said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei.
Stricter monitoring would target goods redirected to Taiwan and those rerouted through Taiwan to the US, Kuo said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
It is intended to prevent trade activities that could “affect the US’ judgement of Taiwan,” he added.
“Origin laundering” refers to the deceptive practice of companies misrepresenting a product’s country of origin to make it appear as though it was manufactured somewhere else, often to avoid tariffs or trade restrictions.
The minister made the comments along with Minister of Agriculture Chen Junne-jih (陳駿季) and Deputy Minister of Finance Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) as the government aims to address how Taiwan plans to sustain competitiveness in its agriculture, aquaculture, livestock and critical manufacturing sectors in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariff policy.
Photo: CNA
Asked by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) whether the government was adequately prepared to weather economic turbulence triggered by Trump’s new tariff policy, Kuo said that as many exporters to the US face a uniform 10 percent tariff rate, Taiwan remains “highly competitive” due to its industrial strengths.
Taiwan and the US maintain “mostly complementary” trade in technology and other sectors, he added.
As the Presidential Office and the Cabinet started consultations with industry groups yesterday afternoon, Kuo said the government would continue listening to the private sector to identify areas for improvement.
At a separate meeting of the legislature’s Finance Committee yesterday, central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) said that uncertainty surrounding US tariffs remained, despite Trump’s decision overnight to pause planned tariffs on goods from more than 75 countries for 90 days, excluding China.
Apart from the great uncertainty for the stock market, a trade war and the hefty tariffs imposed by the US and China on each other is also not good for the global economy, Yang said.
“The only way for Taiwan to deal with this uncertainty is negotiation,” cable TV station USTV quoted Yang as saying.
Replying to a question raised by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Te-fu (林德福) whether there is room for upward revisions to the nation’s consumer price index (CPI) and core CPI this year, Yang said the central bank still believes consumer prices would remain stable in the face of a potential tariff hit.
It is too early to judge whether the local stock market is about to enter a bear market following days of turmoil caused by Trump’s tariff policy, Yang said, adding that the market’s long-term outlook would reflect the fundamentals.
The central bank would assess whether to increase Taiwan’s holdings of US Treasury bonds in its foreign exchange reserves, Yang said.
“At present more than 80 percent is ideal,” he said.
Additional reporting by Chen Cheng-hui
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
Artificial intelligence (AI) giant Nvidia Corp’s most advanced chips would be reserved for US companies and kept out of China and other countries, US President Donald Trump said. During an interview that aired on Sunday on CBS’ 60 Minutes program and in comments to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said only US customers should have access to the top-end Blackwell chips offered by Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization. “The most advanced, we will not let anybody have them other than the United States,” he told CBS, echoing remarks made earlier to reporters as he returned to Washington
RSS