TAIPEI: Taiwan “won’t agree” to creating 50 per cent of its semiconductors in the US, the island’s lead tariff negotiator mentioned on Wednesday (Oct 1), as Washington pressures Taipei to supply extra chips on US soil.
Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun’s remarks got here after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick mentioned he had proposed to Taiwan a 50-50 break up in chip manufacturing.
“I need to make clear that that is the US’ concept. Our negotiation group has by no means made a 50-50 dedication to a chip break up,” Cheng informed reporters in Taipei.
“Please be relaxation assured that we didn’t talk about this challenge this time, and we won’t comply with such a situation,” she mentioned.
Cheng spoke after getting back from Washington the place she mentioned negotiations over US tariffs on Taiwanese shipments “made some progress”.
Taiwan is struggling to finalise a tariff take care of Washington, after President Donald Trump’s administration imposed a brief 20 per cent levy that has alarmed the island’s producers.
Trump has additionally threatened to place a “pretty substantial tariff” on semiconductors coming into the nation.
Hovering demand for AI-related expertise has fuelled Taiwan’s commerce surplus with the US – and put it in Trump’s crosshairs.
Greater than 70 per cent of the island’s exports to the US are info and communications expertise, which incorporates chips, the cupboard mentioned in a press release on Wednesday.
In a bid to keep away from the tariffs, Taipei has pledged to extend funding in the US, purchase extra of its power and enhance its personal defence spending to greater than 3 per cent of gross home product.
