Taiwan is considering forming a high-tech strategic partnership with the US, which wants increased Taiwanese investment, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday while giving an update on talks with Washington.
Taiwan — home to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker — runs a large trade surplus with the US. Its exports to the US are subject to a 20 percent tariff, a figure that Taipei is seeking to cut.
Cheng, who is leading the tariff talks with Washington, said she was hopeful that both sides could reach a consensus on expanding investment in the US through a “Taiwan model.”
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
That would not involve relocating supply chains, but rather extending and expanding US production capacity, said Cheng, who returned this week from the latest round of talks.
The government views the model for investing in the US as “industrial investment planning” coupled with government support measures such as export credit guarantees and joint Taiwan-US development of industrial clusters, she told reporters alongside Minister Without Portfolio Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮), who leads the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations, and Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Chin-tsang (何晉滄).
“The current negotiation focus is that the United States expects us to expand investments and engage in supply chain cooperation,” Cheng said.
The Taiwan Model would allow corporate owners to choose the industries in which they wish to invest, and the government then invests based on those choices, she said.
The government would establish an investment insurance scheme, providing companies with financial support and encouraging them to invest, she added.
While science parks in Taiwan might not be 100 percent replicable in other countries, the nation is willing to share its experience to help foster and build industry clusters in the US, thereby decreasing investment risks and corporate overheads, she said.
This does not mean we are moving Taiwan’s science parks to the US, she added.
To encourage the formation of industry clusters and science parks, we hope the US would provide land, utilities, services, basic infrastructure, as well as facilitating visa issuances, and expediting legal frameworks and environmental assessment processes, Cheng said, adding that those conditions would accelerate the formation of corporate investment plans, as well as facilitating the creation of local supply chains and industry clusters.
To meet the conditions would require a joint effort by the industrial sector, the financial sector and the government, with success creating a “win” for all parties, Cheng said.
In addition to discussions on supply chain collaboration, Taiwan is also in talks with the US over tariff rates, Cheng said, adding that Taiwan has reiterated its position that the rates would not be cumulative.
The two nations are also discussing preferential tariff rates for semiconductors and related products, as well as other items mentioned under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act of 1962, Cheng said.
Neither the US Department of Commerce nor the Office of the US Trade Representative has responded to requests for comment on the talks.
TSMC, whose business is surging on demand for artificial intelligence applications, is investing US$165 billion to build chip factories in Arizona, although the bulk of its production would remain in Taiwan.
Cheng, who said that TSMC did not take part in the latest talks, reiterated that a proposal floated in US media by US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick for a “50-50 split” in making chips is not something Taiwan would agree to and was not brought up.
The aim of Taiwan’s industry is to “remain rooted in Taiwan and deploy around the world, and then have bilateral strategic cooperation,” she said.
Taiwan has sought three main concessions in the negotiations: to reduce the tariff rate, receive comprehensive preferential treatment covering semiconductors and other items under the act, and receive improved investment opportunities in the US.
The US tariff policy took effect on Aug. 7, setting Taiwan’s provisional tariff rate at 20 percent.
There have been five rounds of talks so far this year, starting with a video conference on April 11 and followed by meetings on May 1, June 25, July 8, late July to early August, and from Thursday last week to Monday.
Additional reporting by CNA
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
J-6 REMODEL: The converted drones are part of Beijing’s expanding mix of airpower weapons, including bombers with stand-off missiles and UAV swarms, the report said China has stationed obsolete supersonic fighters converted to attack drones at six air bases close to the Taiwan Strait, a report published this month by the Arlington, Virginia-based Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies said. Satellite imagery of the airfields from the institute’s “China Airpower Tracker” shows what appear to be lines of stubby, swept-winged aircraft matching the shape of J-6 fighters that first flew with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in the 1960s. Since their conversion to drones, the aircraft have been identified at five bases in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province, the report said. J.
China used fake LinkedIn profiles to harvest sensitive data from NATO and EU institutions by soliciting information from staff, a European security source said on Friday. The operation, allegedly orchestrated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security, targeted dozens of employees at the military alliance or EU organizations through fictitious accounts, the source said, confirming reports in French and Belgian media. Posing as recruiters on the online professional networking platform, Chinese spies would initially request paid reports before later soliciting non-public or even classified information. One particularly active fake profile used the name “Kevin Zhang,” claiming to be the head
RSS