\u201cThese results underscore that the progress achieved so far has been hard-won,\u201d Cho said.<\/p>\n
Taiwan\u2019s dominance of the chip industry has long been seen as a \u201csilicon shield\u201d protecting it from an invasion or blockade by China, which claims the island is part of its sovereign territory, and an incentive for the United States to defend it.<\/p>\n
But the threat of a Chinese attack has fuelled concerns about potential disruptions to global supply chains, increasing pressure for more chip production beyond Taiwan\u2019s shores.<\/p>\n
Taiwan will remain the leading AI chip producer, with production split with the US by 2036. Photo \/ I-Hwa Cheng, AFP<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on current planning, Taiwan will still remain the world\u2019s most important producer of AI semiconductors, not only for Taiwanese companies, but globally,\u201d Taiwanese Economic Affairs Minister Kung Ming-hsin said on Friday.<\/p>\n
Production capacity for the advanced chips that power artificial intelligence systems will be split about 85-15 between Taiwan and the United States by 2030 and 80-20 by 2036, he projected.<\/p>\n
The deal will need to be approved by Taiwan\u2019s opposition-controlled parliament where lawmakers have expressed concern about the potential for Taiwan to lose its chip dominance.<\/p>\n
Sector-specific tariffs on Taiwanese automotive parts, timber, lumber and wood products will also be capped at 15%, while generic pharmaceuticals and certain natural resources will face no \u201creciprocal\u201d duties, the US Commerce Department said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Taiwanese chip and tech businesses are set to make \u201cnew, direct investments totalling at least US$250 billion ($435b)\u201d in the United States to build and expand capacity in areas such as advanced semiconductors and AI, the department said.<\/p>\n
Taiwan will also provide \u201ccredit guarantees of at least US$250b to facilitate additional investment by Taiwanese enterprises\u201d, it said, adding this would support the growth of the US semiconductor supply chain.<\/p>\n
Taiwan\u2019s Government said the new tariff will not stack on top of existing duties, which had been a major concern for local industries.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, it\u2019s good that the reciprocal tariff has been lowered to 15% \u2013 at least it puts us on par with our main competitors South Korea and Japan,\u201d said Chris Wu, sales director for Taiwanese machine tool maker Litz Hitech Corp.<\/p>\n
But, given the company\u2019s single-digit profit margins, \u201cthere is no way we can absorb the tariff\u201d for US customers, he said.<\/p>\n
More than half of Taiwan\u2019s exports to the United States are information and communications technology products, including semiconductors.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe objective is to bring 40% of Taiwan\u2019s entire supply chain and production, to domestically bring it into America,\u201d US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to bring it all over, so we become self-sufficient in the capacity of building semiconductors.\u201d<\/p>\n
The announcement did not mention names, but the deal has key implications for Taiwanese chipmaking titan TSMC, which last year pledged to spend an additional US$100b on US plants.<\/p>\n
Frenzied demand for AI technology has sent profits skyrocketing for the company, the world\u2019s biggest contract maker of chips used in everything from Apple phones to Nvidia\u2019s cutting-edge AI hardware.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a semiconductor foundry serving customers worldwide, we welcome the prospect of robust trade agreements between the United States and Taiwan,\u201d TSMC said in a statement Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrengthened trade relations are essential for advancing future technologies and ensuring a resilient semiconductor supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lutnick said TSMC has bought land and could expand in Arizona as part of the deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey just bought hundreds of acres adjacent to their property. Now I\u2019m going to let them go through it with their board and give them time,\u201d he told CNBC.<\/p>\n
Taiwanese producers who invest in the United States will be treated more favourably when it comes to future semiconductor duties, the US Commerce Department said.<\/p>\n
A day before, US officials held off imposing wider chip tariffs, instead announcing a 25% duty on certain semiconductors meant to be shipped abroad \u2013 a key step in allowing US chip giant Nvidia to sell AI chips to China.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThese results underscore that the progress achieved so far has been hard-won,\u201d Cho said. Taiwan\u2019s dominance of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":237257,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[74,11231,138,3028,75623,3588,3468,4999,13640,5345,1426,3096,3025,111,139,69,13608,4887,13120,108089,29191,9939,19063,6064,140062,7677,1361,61,584,9938,3040,44977,1533,102,17450],"class_list":["post-237256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-after","tag-boost","tag-business","tag-chip","tag-chipmaker","tag-cut","tag-deal","tag-friday","tag-important","tag-increase","tag-investment","tag-islands","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-reaching","tag-reduce","tag-remain","tag-shipments","tag-soil","tag-states","tag-strikes","tag-taiwan","tag-taiwanese","tag-tariffs","tag-that","tag-to","tag-trade","tag-united","tag-us","tag-vowed","tag-will","tag-with","tag-worlds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/237257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}