Taiwan President Discusses US Tariff Response with Tech Execs
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te met tech executives on Saturday to discuss how to respond to new US tariffs, promising to ensure Taiwan’s global competitiveness and safeguard the island’s interests.
President Donald Trump announced across-the-board import tariffs on Wednesday with much higher duties for dozens of trading partners, including Taiwan, which runs a large trade surplus with the United States and is facing a 32% duty on its products.
The US tariffs, however, do not apply to semiconductors, a major Taiwanese export.
Lai met the executives at his official residence to discuss the response to “the global economic and trade challenges brought about by the reciprocal tariff policy”, his spokesperson Karen Kuo said in a statement, Reuters reported.
She did not say which companies were present, only that there were several representatives from the information and communications technology, or ICT, industry.
Lai “hopes to give industry the greatest support, stabilise the economic situation, ensure Taiwan’s industry’s global competitiveness, and safeguard our country’s national interests and the continued steady progress of our economy”, Kuo said.
