Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said that trade negotiations with the US are still ongoing, after US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent on Sunday said that nations failing to reach a deal with Washington would face the “reciprocal” tariffs US President Donald Trump announced in April.
Trump later suspended the high levies for 90 days to allow for trade talks and set a deadline tomorrow for nations to strike agreements with the US.
Asked whether the US tariff rate on Taiwan would stay at 32 percent and if potential US tariffs would prompt companies to relocate from Taiwan, Kuo declined to comment at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee.
Photo: CNA
The meeting was called off at about 9am due to the impact of Typhoon Danas.
Nations including Taiwan have been pushing to strike deals with Washington over the past three months that would help them avoid the high US tariffs set to begin on Aug. 1.
So far, the Trump administration has only unveiled deals with the UK and Vietnam, while Washington and Beijing agreed to temporarily lower high levies on each other’s products.
At a previous Economics Committee meeting on June 23, Kuo said the outlook for the tariff negotiations appeared positive — based on the information the ministry had gathered — and the ministry would work hard to prevent China from exploiting Taiwan through product mislabeling and origin fraud.
Asked whether lowering tariffs on US car imports — a possible part of the trade deal with Washington — would hurt local automakers, Kuo said the impact would be limited, as US vehicles account for only a small share of the nation’s car imports.
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