TAIPEI, Jan 20 (Reuters) \u2013 Taiwan aims to build a \u201cdemocratic\u201d high-tech supply chain with the United States and form a strategic AI partnership under the new tariffs deal it sealed with Washington last \u200dweek, Taipei\u2019s top negotiator in the talks said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
U.S. President Donald Trump has pushed the major producer of semiconductors, which runs a large trade surplus with the United States, to invest\u00a0more in the U.S., specifically in chips that power AI.<\/p>\n
Under the terms of the long-negotiated deal, chipmakers like TSMC that expand U.S. \u200cproduction will incur a lower tariff on semiconductors or \u200crelated manufacturing equipment and products they import into the U.S. and will be able to import some items duty-free. Broad tariffs that apply to most other Taiwanese exports to the U.S. will fall from 20% to 15%.<\/p>\n
Taiwan companies will \u200balso invest $250 billion to boost production of semiconductors, energy and artificial intelligence in the U.S., while Taiwan will also guarantee an additional $250 billion \u200din credit to facilitate further investment.<\/p>\n
Speaking to \u200breporters in Taipei, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun said the deal \u200bwas not about hollowing out Taiwan\u2019s chip industry, which is so important \u200dfor the economy it is widely referred to as the \u201csacred mountain protecting the country\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not supply-chain relocation; rather, it is support for Taiwan\u2019s high-tech industries to extend their strength abroad \u2013 through addition, and even multiplication \u2013 to expand a strong international footprint in the United States,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn \u200dthe past we said, \u2018Taiwan can help\u2019,\u201d Cheng added, referring to Taiwan\u2019s past efforts to help the international community during the COVID pandemic and other crises.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope \u200din the future it \u200dwill be \u201cTaiwan-U.S. can lead,\u2019 with the two sides joining \u200bforces and, under the wave of AI, working \u200btogether to \u2060build a high-tech supply chain for the democratic camp. \u200cThis is our strategic objective.\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. is Taiwan\u2019s most important backer and arms supplier, despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties. Beijing claims the democratically governed island as its own and has not ruled out the use of force to achieve its goals.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jacqueline Wong \u2060and Kate Mayberry)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAIPEI, Jan 20 (Reuters) \u2013 Taiwan aims to build a \u201cdemocratic\u201d high-tech supply chain with the United States…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-418137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}