Taiwan's first phase of tariff talks with the US went "smoothly" and the government hopes to take this challenge as an opportunity to promote a new Taiwan-plus-the-US layout for trade, President William Lai (賴清德) said today.
Taiwan had been due to be hit with a 32 percent tariff by US President Donald Trump, until he put all tariffs except for those on China on hold for talks to take place.
Photo courtesy of the Presidential Office
Taiwan and the US on Friday last week held their first direct talks about the tariffs.
Speaking to representatives from university alumni associations at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Lai said that Taiwan has overcome challenges before and has to work to turn crises into opportunities to transform the nation's economy.
"Taiwan has started negotiations with the US, and the first phase of the negotiations went smoothly," his office cited him as saying.
Lai said he "hopes to use this challenge as an opportunity for Taiwan to promote the new layout of 'Taiwan plus one,' that is, Taiwan plus the US."
Lai has pledged to seek a zero tariff regime with the US, and to invest more in and buy more from the country.
Taiwan has long sought a broad bilateral trade deal with the US, and also wants similar deals with other US allies, especially as the government seeks to wean Taiwan off reliance on China.
Lai said Taiwan has already been signing trade and investment protection agreements with countries such as Britain and Canada, and also wants to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
"By resolving trade barriers multilaterally, we can allow Taiwanese products to be sold around the world," he added.
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