The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday.
Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.”
“It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida.
Photo: Yang Hsin-hui, Taipei Times
“They left us, and they went to Taiwan, which is about 98 percent of the chip business, by the way ... and we want them to come back, and we don’t want to give them billions of dollars, like this ridiculous program [the US CHIPS and Science Act] that [former US president Joe] Biden has,” Trump said.
In Taiwan, many people voiced concerns that the nation would be severely damaged if the US imposed a high tariff on Taiwan-made chips.
“In response to rapid changes in situations at home and overseas, Taiwan needs to continue pursuing opportunities for more partnerships in the international community and maintaining our competitive edge,” Cho said yesterday when asked to comment. “At home, the government and the private sector need to form a united front. Just like chopsticks, which are not easily broken if you tie them together. This is a great opportunity for Taiwan.”
“The Ministry of Economic Affairs and other government agencies are closely monitoring what happened overseas in the past few days. We would start looking at possible ways of assisting the semiconductor industry and having more collaborative projects with it in a couple of days,” he said.
“However, we want to assure people that the international community cannot afford to ignore Taiwan’s role in the global supply chain. We will continue to maintain that advantage,” he added.
Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said that Taiwan and the US have been collaborating in semiconductor and other high-tech projects, and have built a relationship based on trust over the years.
“We will continue to focus on the latest development of the policy [on semiconductors] in the US, and maintain a close contact and partnership with the US government,” she said. “Taiwan-US relations should be bolstered by building upon existing foundations, and Taiwan and the US should jointly counter global challenges to contribute to a stable development of the industry and national interests in both countries.”
In 2020, during the first Trump administration, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) — the world’s largest contract chipmaker — announced that it would build a US$2 billion factory in Arizona to help the US government wrestle global tech supply chains back from China. It later boosted those plans with a total investment of US$65 billion.
TSMC has declined to comment on Trump’s latest tariff remarks.
In another potential challenge for Taiwan, Trump last week directed federal agencies to investigate persistent US trade deficits, unfair trade practices and alleged currency manipulation by other countries.
Taiwan’s trade surplus with the US surged 83 percent last year compared with 2023, with exports to the US hitting a record US$111.4 billion, driven by demand for high-tech products such as semiconductors.
Additional reporting by Lin Che-yuan and Reuters
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