Taiwan's Lai says 'no plans' for retaliatory tariffs on US

AFP | Taipei

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Taiwan does not plan to impose reciprocal tariffs on imports from the United States, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te said Sunday, after US President Donald Trump hit the island with a 32% levy.

Taiwan's government has criticised the tax as "unfair" and "highly unreasonable", but stopped short of threatening its most important security backer with new tariffs of its own.

Instead, Taiwan has earmarked $2.7 billion to help industries affected by the new levy, which was among sweeping global tariffs announced by Trump last week.

"In response to the United States' 'reciprocal tariffs', Taiwan has no plans to impose retaliatory tariffs," Lai said.

"But we must let the United States clearly understand Taiwan's contributions to the economic development of the United States."

Lai made the announcement after meeting with members of Taiwan's information and communications technology sector, or ICT, and businesses over the weekend.

Around 60% of Taiwan's exports to the United States are ICT, which includes semiconductor chips. Chips were excluded from Trump's new tariffs. Taipei has argued that the surplus reflected soaring demand in the United States for Taiwan's semiconductors and other tech products, further driven by US tariffs and export controls targeting China that Trump imposed during his first term.