Taiwanese companies and organizations yesterday conveyed a range of responses to a potential trade war between the US and China.
US President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a memorandum to impose tariffs on Chinese imports and restrictions on Chinese investments.
Less than 12 hours later, China proposed a retaliatory list of potential tariffs on US imports.
Photo: CNA
Up to 30 percent of Taiwanese industries process their goods in China before export to the US, Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce (工商協進會) chairman Lin Por-fong (林伯豐) said.
He predicted that the textile, e-commerce, machining and machine parts industries would be affected.
On the surface, the tariffs target Chinese manufacturers, but many Taiwanese firms would also be affected because of their investments or factories in China, Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research president Wu Chung-shu (吳中書) said.
As Taiwanese firms expand overseas, they should consider not only the current situation, but also a potential global trade war, he said.
SEMI Taiwan president Terry Tsao (曹世綸) said he does not want to see an obstacle to global trade cause the semiconductor sector’s upstream, midstream and downstream industries to divide their work around the world.
At the moment, the tariffs will likely have a larger effect on the downstream industry, Tsao said, adding that it is too soon to see effects on the upstream industry.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) said that as its production base is in Taiwan, its operations would not be affected.
A US-China trade war might have a negative effect on global economic development, but to what extent cannot be addressed at the moment, United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) said.
The technology industry has global supply chains, Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) said, adding that as many of its main clients are US or European, there would be no direct impact.
Generally speaking, a US-China trade war would only affect the US market of the notebook computer industry, particularly brands with a large market share in the US, a source in the industry said on condition of anonymity.
In the fourth quarter of last year, HP Inc held a 33.7 percent share of the US PC market, followed by Dell at 24.3 percent, Apple Inc with 13 percent, China-based Lenovo Group (聯想) at 11.8 percent and Taiwanese firm Acer Inc (宏碁) with 3.9 percent, market researcher Gartner Inc statistics showed.
Acer yesterday said it still needs to assess the effects of the tariffs.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary