Taiwanese business groups yesterday welcomed the outcome of the trade talks with the US, saying the agreement injects much-needed certainty into corporate planning even as risks persist from Washington’s evolving tariff and technology policies.
The Taipei-based Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (CNAIC, 工商協進會) said that securing tariff treatment on par with Japan, South Korea and the EU is critical to maintaining Taiwan’s global competitiveness in the high-tech industry.
The group urged policymakers to clearly separate corporate investment decisions from government-backed guarantees.
Photo: Lin Chin-hua, Taipei Times
Authorities should enhance incentives under existing “Invest Taiwan” programs, while encouraging overseas cooperation, it said.
“Such steps are needed to ensure that core technologies and research-and-development capabilities remain rooted in Taiwan and to address concerns over industrial hollowing out,” it said.
Regarding a separate US$250 billion in government credit guarantees, CNAIC urged officials to swiftly coordinate with the financial sector to establish transparent, project-based standards for credit support.
That would provide more concrete backing for companies expanding abroad and help mitigate cross-border operational risks, it said.
Beyond tariff arrangements, CNAIC said the business community hoped the government would accelerate complementary measures to support Taiwan-US operations, including a bilateral agreement to avoid double taxation and greater visa flexibility for Taiwanese professional and technical personnel.
Such moves would help reduce tax burdens and administrative costs for firms operating in the US, it said.
Another business group, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (台灣機械公會), agreed, saying the tariff deal would help boost local machinery exports to the US.
The agreement put local machinery manufacturers on an equal footing with their Japanese and South Korean rivals, with a 15 percent tariff rate and no additional stacking tariffs, the association said in a statement.
That was a significant reduction from the 20 percent levy on Taiwanese goods announced by US President Donald Trump’s administration in August last year, higher than the 15 percent imposed on Japan and South Korea.
“The association believes Taiwan’s machinery industry will benefit from the lower tariffs and ship more goods to the US, adding strength to the industry’s recent recovery,” the statement said.
Taiwan’s machinery goods exports expanded 9.1 percent year-on-year last year, it said.
Since Taiwan was also granted the “most favored nation” status with duties on auto parts and timber capped at 15 percent under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act, that would help stimulate purchases of machinery tools and related components from US customers and significantly drive exports, it said.
Machinery tool exports last year dipped to US$2 billion, the weakest since the global financial crisis in 2009, it said.
Consultancy firm PwC Taiwan said that the agreement effectively locks in tariff treatment for Taiwanese exports to the US, giving companies greater certainty when planning operations and investment.
Still, PwC cautioned that expanded semiconductor investment could accelerate supply-chain shifts and it remains unclear whether Washington might tighten export controls on advanced chips and artificial intelligence-related technologies following the deal.
Deloitte & Touche Taiwan warned that while the agreement has eased some of the tariff pressure facing Taiwanese companies, US trade policy remains fluid.
The US has signaled it would continue to assess the effectiveness of the measures and would not rule out expanding the scope of semiconductor tariffs in the future.
Semiconductor companies will need to closely monitor policy developments, the pace of Taiwanese investments in the US and the buildout of US semiconductor clusters, Deloitte said.
More broadly, uncertainty is growing over whether the trade agreement could trigger further upstream and downstream integration or prompt shifts in supply-chain locations, potentially reshaping Taiwan’s deeply entrenched semiconductor ecosystem, it said.
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