Taiwan ‘won’t agree’ to 50-50 chip split with US

Taiwan has sought to ease public fears that its prized chip industry could be hollowed out following US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s call for semiconductor manufacturing to be evenly divided between the island and the United States.

Advertisement

Taiwanese Vice-Premier Cheng Li-chun said on Thursday that Taiwan’s negotiating team had never promised Washington to evenly split chip production.

“Taiwan has never made any commitment on a ‘50-50’ division, and we will not agree to such terms in the future,” Cheng said.

She added that rather than conceding ground on production capacity, her team was seeking consensus with the US on areas such as supply-chain cooperation and preferential tariff treatment.

She said that trade talks with US officials in Washington in the past week had focused on what Taipei has dubbed the “Taiwan model” – a strategic partnership that would allow the island’s technology industry to remain rooted at home while supporting expansion abroad.

Advertisement

She said the model had four pillars: allowing firms to decide their own investment strategies with government support; creating financial guarantee mechanisms to encourage funding; drawing on Taiwan’s experience in developing science parks to foster industry clusters in the US; and securing commitments from Washington on land, utilities, regulations and visas.

South China Morning Post

Related posts

Leave a Comment