The Executive Yuan yesterday announced further details of its NT$88 billion (US$2.71 billion) relief package for businesses affected by US tariffs, including application procedures and eligibility criteria, as the government aims to provide firms with greater financial flexibility amid global economic uncertainty.
The government has also eased requirements for relief applications to ensure more businesses remain operational amid US tariff threats, the Executive Yuan said in a statement.
The eligibility criteria for export loan guarantees and loans for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have also been relaxed, it said.
Photo: CNA
For example, companies that report a decline in revenue of at least 10 percent during a designated period this year compared with the same period last year, the second half of last year on a monthly basis or the January-to-February period, would qualify for government relief loans, it said.
The previous requirements limited eligibility to firms with a single-month revenue drop of at least 15 percent and fewer than 30 employees.
Exporters would benefit from loans with reduced interest rates under the relief program, which is expected to assist up to 24,000 businesses, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said in a statement.
Loan terms for companies most affected by the new US tariffs would be extended, and the application process for new loans would be simplified, he said.
For agricultural financing, the program is projected to support up to 15,600 households, he added.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is allocating a total budget of NT$41 billion to support exporters and SMEs affected by US tariffs, the ministry said in a separate statement yesterday.
The funding would cover industrial transformation, research and development subsidies and assistance in securing overseas orders, the ministry said.
The ministry also plans to provide up to NT$6 billion in loan guarantees to support importers and exporters affected by US tariffs.
Each SME could receive up to NT$60 million in guarantees — with fees waived or reduced for up to two years — while large firms may qualify for up to NT$100 million, it said.
As part of the broader relief initiative, the Small and Medium Enterprise Credit Guarantee Fund (中小企業信用保證基金) plans to offer a new loan guarantee program offering loans of up to NT$35 million for SMEs once the current programs expire in October, fund chairman Wei Ming-ku (魏明谷) told the Taipei Times.
The fund has provided up to NT$800 billion in loan guarantees to local small, medium and micro-sized enterprises since May 2023, Wei said.
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
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