The government would not impose reciprocal tariffs in retaliation against US levies, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he announced five strategies to address the issue, including pledging to increase Taiwanese companies’ investments in the US.
Lai has in the past few days met with administrative and national security officials, as well as representatives from various industries, to explore countermeasures after US President Donald Trump on Wednesday last week announced a 32 percent duty on Taiwanese imports.
In a video released yesterday evening, Lai said that Taiwan would not retaliate against the US with higher tariffs and Taiwanese companies’ commitments to invest in the US would not change, as long as they are in the national interest.
Photo: Screen grab from the Presidential Office’s Flickr page
“Taiwanese exports to the US amounted to US$111.4 billion, or 23.4 percent of total exports, last year, while the other more than 75 percent of products were exported to other countries around the world,” he said.
“Of all exports to the US, competitive products, including information and communications [IT] products and electronic components, accounted for 65.4 percent, a figure that shows Taiwan’s economy is resilient,” Lai said, adding that the effects of increased US tariffs could be lessened through public-private cooperation.
Five strategies would be adopted to strengthen Taiwan-US industrial cooperation and bolster domestic industries, he said.
First, the government would seek a more preferable import duty from the US government through negotiations, including a “zero-for-zero” tariff approach in line with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, he said.
The government would expand procurement from the US to reduce the US trade deficit with Taiwan and encourage private investments in the US to deepen industrial cooperation, he said.
“Taiwan’s investments in the US have amounted to more than US$100 billion and created about 400,000 job opportunities,” Lai said.
In addition to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), companies from other industries in electronics, IT, and oil and gas are also encouraged to invest more in the US, he said.
The government would put together a task force to promote Taiwanese investments in the US, and would expect the US to reciprocate by integrating a team for US investments in Taiwan to tighten bilateral economic and trade cooperation, he said.
To facilitate negotiations, the government would try to remove nontariff trade barriers, which are indicators for the US to evaluate the fairness of trade, ease regulations on high-tech exports and clamp down on illicit transshipments, he said.
Second, the Cabinet would lead efforts to propose programs supporting businesses — particularly traditional industries, and small and medium-sized businesses — to innovate, upgrade or transform, Lai said.
Third, the government would propose medium and long-term economic development road maps and diversify overseas markets by collaborating with allied countries to integrate upstream, midstream and downstream industrial supply chains, he said.
Fourth, the national economic development strategy would be calibrated to focus on Taiwan-US industrial cooperation, while leveraging newly arranged international industrial chains to penetrate US markets and market Taiwanese products globally, he said.
Fifth, the government would invite advice from industries regardless of their type or scale to tailor policies to businesses’ needs and help ease the effects of the US’ “reciprocal” tariffs, he said.
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