Taiwan's Business Community Urges Hustle on U.S. Trade Negotiations

TaiwanPlus News

Members of Taiwan's business community are urging the government to work faster on a tariff deal with the U.S. as they anxiously await an announcement.

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00:00As Taiwan continues trying to hammer out a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump on tariffs,

00:05some within its business community want the government to hurry up.

00:08They want to know the tariff rate as soon as possible so they can prepare.

00:33Otherwise, if companies are caught off guard, especially smaller ones,

00:36they say they could risk shutting down.

00:39The anxiety among Taiwan's business world comes amid Taiwan's fourth round of tariff talks with the U.S.,

00:45aimed at lowering the proposed 32 percent tariffs on Taiwanese goods that Trump announced in April.

00:51A deal is likely to come within the next few days.

00:54Taiwan's government has previously said it hoped to reach an agreement with the U.S. by August 1st,

00:59and Trump has said his government will have most deals finished by then, before sending out tariff letters.

01:04I'm going to keep it minimal. I'm going to keep it, you know, I'm not looking to hurt countries.

01:09I could do that too, but I'm not looking to do that.

01:12But when that letter goes out, that's a deal.

01:14And we'll be sending maybe close to 200 of those letters out.

01:17Don't forget, we have a lot of countries, so we're going to be sending out almost 200 of those letters.

01:22But once those letters go out, there we have a deal.

01:26Several of Taiwan's neighbors have recently reached trade deals, including Japan,

01:30which got a 15 percent tariff on all goods.

01:34Some argue 15 percent or lower is what Taiwan should be aiming for too,

01:38to keep some of its industries that compete with Japan afloat,

01:41like its machine tools industry, which exports heavily to the U.S.

01:46Meanwhile, Taiwan's semiconductor industry could face targeted tariffs,

01:50following a U.S. national security probe into foreign chip imports due to be released in around two weeks.

01:55Taiwan's cabinet says it will provide updates when it has them.

02:00And for some whose livelihoods may be affected by this deal, that news can't come soon enough.

02:05Hank Xu and Cadence Caranta for Taiwan Plus.

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