Taiwan has “never made any commitment to a 50-50 split on manufacturing chips, and would not agree to such terms,” Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said yesterday after returning from a fifth round of in-person tariff negotiations with the US.
US President Donald Trump’s administration wants Taiwan to adopt a “50-50 split” on semiconductor manufacturing, with half of the chips used in the US to be made domestically, US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said in an interview with NewsNation on Sunday.
The concept differs from the investment direction being discussed under negotiations regarding supply chain cooperation, the Cabinet said in a statement yesterday.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
As the US expands its investigation into the semiconductor market under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act of 1962, paving the way for potential tariffs on semiconductors, Taiwan is seeking cuts to Trump’s tariffs and preferential treatment related to Section 232, the Executive Yuan said.
The White House’s provisional 20 percent tariff on Taiwanese goods was implemented on Aug. 7, although negotiations are ongoing.
The negotiation team returned to Taiwan yesterday morning.
Cheng headed the delegation alongside Minister Without Portfolio Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮), head of the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations, and Ministry of Economic Affairs personnel.
The group held in-person meetings in Washington with the Office of the US Trade Representative and the US Department of Commerce, with “some progress made,” the statement said.
Once the two sides reach a consensus on tariffs, Section 232 preferential treatment and supply chain cooperation, a meeting would be held to finalize a Taiwan-US trade agreement, the delegation said.
The US launched the ongoing Section 232 investigation in April into possible tariffs on semiconductor and other tech product imports.
The Executive Yuan said that the 50-50 condition “goes against Taiwan-US supply chain cooperation,” reiterating Taiwan’s opposition to such terms.
The idea was condemned by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP).
KMT Legislator Hsu Yu-chen (許宇甄) on Monday said that the proposal was not a trade agreement, but “exploitation and plunder.”
“No one can sell out Taiwan or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), and no one can undermine Taiwan’s silicon shield,” KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday.
TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) called the proposal an attempt to “hollow out the foundations of Taiwan’s technology sector.”
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS