Opposition Draws Up Own Special Budgets To Respond to U.S. Tariffs

TaiwanPlus News

As Taiwan scrambles to come up with a special budget to respond to U.S. President Donald Trump's potential 32% tariff on the country, disagreements persist over how relief funds should be spent.

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00:00Close, but no cigar.

00:02Taiwan's ruling Democratic Progressive Party has worked hard to push through the legislature

00:07a $410 billion NT special budget, which at the current exchange rate is over $13 billion U.S.

00:15Part of that budget is to help Taiwanese society weather a potential 32% tariff from U.S. President Donald Trump,

00:23which is on a 90-day hold.

00:24The other part, according to Premier Zuo Rongtai, is to better prepare Taiwan to respond to what he calls

00:31the evolving international situation.

00:34To make his case, Zuo last week visited Taiwan's opposition Kuomintang and Taiwan People's Party legislative caucuses.

00:41That's because the ruling DPP does not have decisive power in that chamber.

00:45And his efforts seem to have paid off, at least initially,

00:49when the budget proposal passed its first reading in the legislature in the same week.

00:54But those prospects have seemingly fallen through.

01:08Both the KMT and TPP have just put forward their own versions of the special relief budget

01:14to compete with the ruling party's proposal.

01:16They remove items in the original DPP budget plan that they say have nothing to do with U.S.-Taiwan trade.

01:23One of those items is a more than $3 billion subsidy for the country's main energy utility, Taipower,

01:30which has been operating with multi-billion-dollar losses.

01:34It's an issue that has long divided ruling in opposition parties,

01:37stemming from disagreements over energy policy.

01:40The opposition's proposals also slashed things like talent acquisition and drone programs for defense.

01:55Instead, they want to dole out money to the public to help boost domestic consumer spending.

01:59In response, Premier Zhuo on Tuesday once again called for cross-party unity.

02:21He also argued that giving cash to the public now is not the best way to solve the problems at hand.

02:27The consensus among Taiwan's political parties is that this special budget is needed.

02:48But opinions still differ on how the money is best spent,

02:52and that is delaying much-needed support for local industries to cope with potential U.S. tariffs.

02:58Joseph Wu, Leslie Liao, and Eric Gao for Taiwan Plus.

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