Mexico’s planned tariff hikes would have a limited effect on Taiwan, as the measures do not target information and communications technology (ICT) products, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday.
Most ICT products that Taiwan exports to Mexico — including electronic components and semi-finished goods — remain covered by the WTO’s Information Technology Agreement, and would therefore be exempt from the higher tariffs, Kung said on the sidelines of an economic forum in Taipei.
Mexican lawmakers last week backed a measure to raise import duties to as high as 50 percent from 15 to 20 percent on goods from countries that do not have a free-trade agreement with it. The affected nations include Taiwan, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Nicaragua, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates.
Photo: CNA
Auto parts, light vehicles, textiles, clothing, furniture, plastics, household appliances, cosmetics and cleaning products are among the products that would be affected.
Taiwan’s automotive electronics are expected to be impacted as well, as the US has required Mexico to impose tariffs to prevent origin fraud by Chinese manufacturers, Kung said.
If Mexico were to impose tariffs on ICT products, it would undermine server assemblers’ willingness to set up factories there, and Mexico is unlikely to “cut off its own limbs,” he said.
Separately, Politico on Sunday reported that only 23 percent of Taiwanese goods sold to the US are subject to Washington’s “reciprocal” tariffs — the lowest share among the US’ biggest trading partners — which the US publication described as “enormous holes.”
Commenting on the report, Kung said that about 70 percent of Taiwan’s exports to the US are ICT products that are not subject to “reciprocal” tariffs, but are pending an ongoing investigation under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act.
“It is not a matter of whether the US tariff policy has loopholes,” he said.
The minister said he expects Taiwan to have greater room for negotiations on trade with the US and be able to gain more favorable treatment, given the nation’s industrial competitiveness, and its contribution to global supply chains and support of the US.
Kung also said he anticipates strong artificial intelligence (AI) demand to lift Taiwan’s economy next year above the 3.54 percent growth estimate made last month by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.
As AI demand remains robust, the market is constrained more by supply than by demand, he said.
“The answer will depend on how much our supply chains, especially Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), can produce,” he added.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
A proposed billionaires’ tax in California has ignited a political uproar in Silicon Valley, with tech titans threatening to leave the state while California Governor Gavin Newsom of the Democratic Party maneuvers to defeat a levy that he fears would lead to an exodus of wealth. A technology mecca, California has more billionaires than any other US state — a few hundred, by some estimates. About half its personal income tax revenue, a financial backbone in the nearly US$350 billion budget, comes from the top 1 percent of earners. A large healthcare union is attempting to place a proposal before
RSS