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.
WEAKER ACTIVITY: The sharpest deterioration was seen in the electronics and optical components sector, with the production index falling 13.2 points to 44.5 Taiwan’s manufacturing sector last month contracted for a second consecutive month, with the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) slipping to 48, reflecting ongoing caution over trade uncertainties, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The decline reflects growing caution among companies amid uncertainty surrounding US tariffs, semiconductor duties and automotive import levies, and it is also likely linked to fading front-loading activity, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “Some clients have started shifting orders to Southeast Asian countries where tariff regimes are already clear,” Lien told a news conference. Firms across the supply chain are also lowering stock levels to mitigate
IN THE AIR: While most companies said they were committed to North American operations, some added that production and costs would depend on the outcome of a US trade probe Leading local contract electronics makers Wistron Corp (緯創), Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), Inventec Corp (英業達) and Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) are to maintain their North American expansion plans, despite Washington’s 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods. Wistron said it has long maintained a presence in the US, while distributing production across Taiwan, North America, Southeast Asia and Europe. The company is in talks with customers to align capacity with their site preferences, a company official told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday. The company is still in talks with clients over who would bear the tariff costs, with the outcome pending further
Six Taiwanese companies, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), made the 2025 Fortune Global 500 list of the world’s largest firms by revenue. In a report published by New York-based Fortune magazine on Tuesday, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), ranked highest among Taiwanese firms, placing 28th with revenue of US$213.69 billion. Up 60 spots from last year, TSMC rose to No. 126 with US$90.16 billion in revenue, followed by Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) at 348th, Pegatron Corp (和碩) at 461st, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) at 494th and Wistron Corp (緯創) at
NEGOTIATIONS: Semiconductors play an outsized role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development and are a major driver of the Taiwan-US trade imbalance With US President Donald Trump threatening to impose tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is expected to face a significant challenge, as information and communications technology (ICT) products account for more than 70 percent of its exports to the US, Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said on Friday. Compared with other countries, semiconductors play a disproportionately large role in Taiwan’s industrial and economic development, Lien said. As the sixth-largest contributor to the US trade deficit, Taiwan recorded a US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US last year — up from US$47.8 billion in 2023 — driven by strong
RSS