Claims that President William Lai (賴清德) met with business leaders to help resolve tariff issues are false, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday, adding that the government maintains close communication with the US and is steadily working toward bilateral economic cooperation.
The Chinese-language Mirror Media magazone reported that Lai had repeatedly invited top business leaders in Taiwan for secret talks since US President Donald Trump announced “reciprocal” tariffs in April.
Lai hoped that the businesses would form a group to invest in the US in a bid to win a reduced US tariff rate, the report said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) rejected the plan and said “no official assistance from Taiwan is needed,” Mirror Media reported.
The situation described in the report is completely false, Kuo said, calling on the media to fact-check stories before they are published.
The government maintains close communications with the US in many fields, and continues to steadily promote bilateral industrial cooperation in economic and trade affairs, she said.
An AIT spokesperson yesterday told the Central News Agency that the report was “completely incorrect.”
The AIT is working closely with Taiwan’s government and private enterprises to promote bilateral trade and investment, the AIT spokesperson said.
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