Taiwan is among the countries listed by US President Donald Trump for a 90-day pause of his "reciprocal" tariffs, Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said today.
The US' baseline tariff of 10 percent on Taiwan goods, which was implemented yesterday, would remain in place, but an additional 22-percent tariff has been suspended for 90 days, Lin indicated during a legislative hearing on the issue.
Photo: Tsung Chang-Chin, Taipei Times
As of press time, the US government has not released a list of the countries included in the tariff suspension plan.
In a stunning reversal, Trump said yesterday he would temporarily lower the hefty duties he had just announced last week on dozens of countries while further ramping up pressure on China, pushing global stocks higher.
Taiwan had been due to be hit with a 32% tariff, sending its stock market plummeting, though the key semiconductor industry was excluded.
Speaking to reporters at parliament, Lin said the government was dedicated to increasing its purchases from and investments in the US and to reduce Taiwan’s trade surplus with its most important international backer.
"Now that we have an additional 90 days, we can discuss Taiwan-US economic and trade cooperation in a more detailed and in-depth manner," he said.
"We hope to take advantage of the huge US market, their excellent technology capital and talent, to form a Taiwan-US coalition, a joint fleet approach," he added.
President William Lai (賴清德) on Sunday pledged to seek a zero-tariff regime with the US, and said that Taipei would not retaliate in response to the tariffs.
Taiwan's benchmark stock index today followed global markets higher in response to the tariff reprieve, opening up more than 9%, having plummeted the previous three trading sessions.
Taiwan stocks surged by more than 1,600 points this morning, recording their biggest-ever intraday gain, after Trump announced a 90-day pause on his steep "reciprocal" tariffs on most countries.
The Taiex index jumped 1,615.09 points to 19,006.85 at 9:05am as three heavyweight stocks — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), Hon Hai (Foxconn) and MediaTek — hit their limit-up prices at NT$863 (US$26.28), NT$123.50 and NT$1,300, respectively.
TSMC's American depositary receipts (ADRs) also rose by 12.29 percent overnight.
In Taipei, TSMC shares skyrocketed to NT$863 today on the news of the tariff suspension. The rise added NT$2.02 trillion to the company's share value, which rebounded to NT$22.37 trillion, contributing about 628 points to the entire market.
However, speaking at a separate parliamentary committee session, Taiwan central bank governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) said that there remained a great amount of uncertainty for the stock market about Trump's tariffs.
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