Trump Imposes 20% Provisional Tariff on Taiwan
Taiwanese Media: "Tariff Negotiations Enter Final Stage"
As President Donald Trump imposed a 20% provisional tariff on Taiwan, negotiations between Taiwan and the United States over reciprocal tariffs are reportedly entering their final stage. If an agreement is reached, it is being discussed that the tariff rate applied to Taiwan could be set at 15%, the same as those for South Korea and Japan.
On January 15, Taiwanese media outlets such as China Times and United Daily News, citing sources, reported that Cheng Li-chun, Vice Premier of Taiwan's Executive Yuan, departed the previous evening to attend a meeting aimed at finalizing the tariff negotiations with the United States.
According to these sources, the authorities of Taiwan and the United States recently concluded their sixth round of working-level negotiations, and Vice Premier Cheng, along with Yang Chien-ni, Chief Negotiator of the Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN), visited the United States to sign the reciprocal tariff agreement documents.
The sources analyzed that the negotiations made progress after TSMC, the world's largest semiconductor foundry, pledged to build five additional semiconductor plants in Arizona, United States.
Taiwan's OTN stated that the reciprocal tariff rate imposed by the United States on Taiwan would not exceed the 15% rate applied to South Korea and Japan. In addition, regarding the Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) status under Section 232 of the U.S. Trade Expansion Act, the two sides have already reached an agreement.
Taiwanese media also reported that during this round of trade negotiations, the United States demanded that Taiwan make investments in the U.S. totaling 400 billion dollars (approximately 588 trillion won), which is more than what was required from South Korea.
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