Taiwan won’t hit US with counter tariffs, will remove trade barriers

The news: Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te has said the country will not impose reciprocal trade tariffs against the US, but will work toward removing trade barriers and boost investments in the US.

The numbers: Taiwan, which runs a large trade surplus with the US was hit with 32% import tariffs on goods shipping into the country in Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs unveiled last week. The new tariffs do not apply to semiconductors, a key Taiwanese export.

The context: At a meeting at Lai’s residence on Sunday, the Taiwanese leader said that given the country’s dependence on trade, it will naturally have a challenging time dealing with the tariffs. However, in efforts to minimise the impact, "Taiwan has no plans to take tariff retaliation, and there will be no change in the investment commitments of enterprises to the United States as long as they are in the national interest," Lai said, according to Reuters.

Referencing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp’s (TSMC) decision to invest USD100 billion ($163.6 billion) in the US announced last month, Lai said the country will extend its investment to the US across other industries such as electronics, information and communications, petrochemicals, and natural gas, to deepen Taiwan-US industrial cooperation.