Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday directed all ministries and agencies to support industries affected by US tariffs, pending the implementation of a special budget, adding that companies affected by the levies could now apply for the relief program.
The measure is part of the government’s strategy of providing immediate assistance followed by long-term planning, he added.
On July 11, the Legislative Yuan passed the third reading of the government’s Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及國土安全韌性特別條例) in response to the US tariffs. The act has a ceiling of NT$545 billion (US$18.28 billion), which includes a NT$10,000 cash payment to each citizen, NT$150 billion for whole-of-society defense resilience, NT$93 billion for industry and employment support, and NT$67 billion for social support.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The government is still in discussions with the US on issues such as tariffs and supply chain cooperation, Cho said.
Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said that the special budget was not part of yesterday’s meeting.
Some adjustments need to be made to the industrial support plan, she said, adding that the rest of the special act would remain unchanged.
The Executive Yuan would ask the Constitutional Court to review the cash handout provision, Lee said on Thursday last week.
Yesterday, she said that the Executive Yuan would continue to communicate and work through legal channels.
The government does not have an unlimited budget, Democratic Progressive Party caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) said.
There are still questions that remain unanswered, such as whether wealthy families would be excluded from the cash payment, and whether the special act is constitutional, Wu said.
Meanwhile, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday panned a closed-door meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee to review classified documents on Taiwan-US tariff negotiations, calling it an effort to keep the public in the dark.
KMT Legislator Hsu Chiao-hsin (徐巧芯) and others said they only signed in, but did not attend the meeting, which ended in an hour.
The meeting was open to all legislators, but the KMT and the Taiwan People’s Party said they would not attend, as they had to provide government oversight.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Chen Ming-chi (陳明祺) said that the meeting was nearly unprecedented, but the ministry and the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations were willing to acquiesce and respect legislative oversight.
The closed-door meeting satisfied the need to keep the contents of the negotiations confidential, while allowing legislators to review documents that are relevant to their fields of interest, Chen said.
Additional reporting by Chen Cheng-yu and Fang Wei-li
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