Taiwan seeks to reduce customs duties for exports to the United States from the current 20% to 15%, but assistance in training American workers was not among the "conditions" provided for in trade talks, informed high-ranking Taiwanese officials on Monday.
Taiwan, 1 of the main semiconductor manufacturers, has repeatedly reiterated that its offer to the United States in talks is simply a "Taiwan model" and is intended to aid replicate the success of the island in building technological clusters around technological parks.
Answering questions in the parliament, Taiwan's chief trade negotiator, Jenni Yang, said the goal was to lower the rate to 15%.
Last week, Reuters reported that president Donald Trump's administration is negotiating an agreement that could require Taiwan to invest fresh and train American workers in the production of integrated circuits and another advanced industries. According to sources acquainted with the case, details may be changed before the contract is finalised.
TSMC, the world's largest maker of commissioned circuit boards, invests $165 billion in the United States, building factories in Arizona. Taiwan's economy minister Kung Ming-hsin said that if the TSMC needed government assistance in training its employees, it could be discussed, however, adding, "This is not 1 of the negotiating conditions" in talks with the United States.
Neither Kung nor Yang stated the exact date of the pact, although Yang stated that the government would take action to finalize it by the end of the year. Exports of semiconductors from Taiwan are not subject to US customs tariffs of 20%.
In August, Trump announced that imports of American semiconductors would be subject to a work of around 100%, but would exclude manufacturing companies in the United States from it or those that committed themselves to it.
As reported by the Reuters agency last month, specified companies include TSMC, although US officials privately claim that duties are improbable to be imposed in the close future.
