Taiwan, the center of the global supply chain for computer chips, woke up on Thursday from the news that President Trump had set new rates of 32 percent on the export of the island to the United States. Except for semiconductors.
The decision not to impose rates on the chip sector does not mean that they will not come for Taiwan or somewhere else, including South Korea, another important source of chips.
Taiwanese companies have spent decades and billions of dollars on drawing up a network of factories that perform the complex process of etching small circuits on pieces of silicon.
These chips – and a wide range of electronic devices that they contain – are the most important exports of Taiwan. And they are increasingly the center of the geopolitical relationship Taiwanese, which has undergone a clear transactional shift since Mr Trump took office.
Mr. Trump said earlier that Taiwan had been given unfair dominance when making semiconductors and threatened to impose rates on the sector. He has also accused Taiwan, which depends on the United States for political support against China's claims that Taiwan is part of his territory, of too little spend on his own safety.
Civil servants and companies in Taiwan have dragged along to mitigate Washington's Battle of the Tarief Deals. Last month, President Lai Ching-Te said that Taiwan was interested in buying natural gas from a long-established project in Alaska.
Weeks earlier, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company said, the world's largest chip maker, which would spend the $ 100 billion in the United States to expand its activities in Arizona. TSMC announced plans for the factory during Mr. Trump's first term and received great financial aid among former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.
On Wednesday, Mr Trump praised when announcing the rates at Taiwan TSMC for investing in the United States. He and his assistants hope other chip companies that are committed to investing in American activities during the Biden administration, such as the South Korean giants Samsung and SK Hynix and global waffles of Taiwan, will promise to spend even more.
Half -conductors are a complicated target for rates because the supply chain for making it is both worldwide and extremely specialized. While most advanced chips are manufactured in Taiwan, many are then sent to another country, such as Malaysia, for testing. The chips can then be placed in iPhones or artificial intelligence servers in Mexico or China before those devices are sold to people around the world.
“Very few semiconductors are actually imported directly into the United States; most are included in a final product,” said Jimmy Goodrich, a senior technology analysis adviser at the Rand Corporation.
Martin Chorzempa, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, added: “It is much more difficult to say:” We are going to make a rate on steel. “”
Even the chips that TSMC makes in its factory in Arizona must leave the United States to be packaged in other devices before they are in the hands of American consumers, said Ming-Yen Ho, a non-resident Fellow at the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology, a fee in Taipei.
“Every chip made in Arizona will have to leave the US for some time before it goes back,” said Mr. Ho. “It is now just a fact of the global chip -supply chain.”
Mr. Trump announced a rate of 32 percent on Wednesday for Taiwanese goods that have been exported to the United States, where Taiwan immediately sends nearly a quarter of his export. In addition to chips, which will not be loaded, Taiwan mainly exports electronic devices and components for them. The American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan said that Taiwan played an indispensable role in the American economy and urged civil servants in Washington and Taipei to strengthen the ties.
The Taiwanese government condemned the rates on Thursday as unreasonable and unfair for Taiwan. The government would submit a strong protest with the office of the American trade representative, Lee Hui-Chih, a spokeswoman for the Taiwan cabinet, said in a statement.
The export from Taiwan to the United States has increased in recent years, which reflects the increased demand for Taiwanese electronics and advanced technology including semiconductors, according to the statement. Mr. Lai, the president, said that the Taiwanese government was concerned about the global impact of the rates.
The Taiwanese government 'thought too optimistic about the relationship with Trump, “said Jason HSU, a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and former member of Taiwan's legislative power for the nationalist party of the opposition. “It was a bit too naive that Trump would be pretty to them, especially after the TSMC announcement.”
Chris Buckley Bring reporting from Taipei, Taiwan.
