Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te on Sunday offered zero tariffs as the basis for talks with the U.S., pledging to remove trade barriers rather than imposing reciprocal measures and saying Taiwanese companies will raise their U.S. investments. President Donald Trump announced across-the-board import tariffs on Wednesday, with much higher duties for dozens of trading partners, including Taiwan, which runs a large trade surplus with the U.S. and faces a 32% duty on its products.
The U.S. tariffs, however, do not apply to semiconductors, a major Taiwanese export.
In a video message released by his office after meeting executives from small and medium-sized companies at his residence, Lai said given Taiwan's dependence on trade, the economy would inevitably have a hard time dealing with the tariffs, but that he thought the impact could be minimized.
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