Taiwan should seek a tariff exemption for its information and communications technology (ICT) products during negotiations with the US, as they constitute about 70 percent of the nation’s exports to the US, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) said yesterday.
The impact of tariffs on Taiwan’s ICT industry could be enormous, as it would not be easy for Taiwanese suppliers to relocate production to the US anytime soon, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a forum in Taipei about US President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.
Taiwan faces a 32 percent “reciprocal” tariff that Trump imposed on April 2 before announcing a 90-day pause on April 9.
Photo: Hsu Tzu-ling, Taipei Times
Taipei and Washington held their first meeting on April 11, with the Office of Trade Negotiations saying that tariffs, trade barriers and export controls were discussed.
President William Lai (賴清德) described the process of the first round of talks as “smooth,” while the Executive Yuan said it expected another round of negotiations to begin soon.
Lien said it would not be wise for Taiwan to take tough action in retaliation for Trump’s tariffs, given that Taiwan’s economy is much smaller than that of the US.
He said he expected Trump to set a “reciprocal” tariff of 15 to 20 percent on goods made in Taiwan.
Yang Shu-fei (楊書菲), deputy head of CIER’s Regional Development Study Center, told the forum that Taiwan could help the US rebuild its manufacturing sector by sharing its experience in developing science parks and industrial zones.
Yang said such parks and zones could create jobs and upgrade manufacturing in the US, while Washington could use its roughly 300 free-trade zones to trade goods made by Taiwanese manufacturers and help reduce its trade deficit.
The US-Taiwan trade deficit rose from US$47.8 billion to US$73.9 billion last year, driven by a surge in US imports, CIER said.
Due to the potential US tariffs, Taiwan’s economic growth could slow to 1.66 percent this year, the institute predicted.
The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics in late February forecast a 3.14 percent growth for this year, after the economy grew 4.59 percent last year.
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
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
RSS