President Donald Trump on Tuesday (Apr 8) said he told the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, which has pledged to build new factories in the United States, it would pay a tax of up to 100 per cent if it did not build its plants in the country.
Speaking at a Republican National Congressional Committee event, Trump criticised former President Joe Biden’s administration for providing a US$6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s US unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona, saying semiconductor companies do not need the money.
“TSMC, I gave them no money … all I did was say, if you don’t build your plant here, you’re going to pay a big tax,” Trump said.
TSMC declined to comment.
In March, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, said at the White House that it plans to make a fresh US$100 billion investment in the US that includes building five additional chip facilities in the coming years.
Earlier on Tuesday, Reuters reported the chipmaker could face a penalty of US$1 billion or more to settle a US export control investigation over a chip it made that ended up inside a Huawei Technologies AI processor.
On Wednesday, a senior Taiwanese official said that Taiwan hopes it can come to a quick agreement with the United States to resolve the tariffs issue and last weekend already approached Washington to discuss the issue.
Taiwan has responded to US President Donald Trump’s 32 per cent tariff on the island with an offer of zero tariffs, more investment in the country and purchases from it, and said it will not retaliate.
Speaking to reporters at parliament, Taiwan National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen said the government’s position was not to take retaliatory measures, but to come up with more specific solutions.
President Lai Ching-te has instructed officials to initiate “strategic communication” between Taiwan and the United States, he added.
“So last weekend, we used channels to talk to the US to reflect our position on Taiwan-US tariff negotiations and some of our proposals,” Tsai said, without giving details.
Lai has held many meetings with officials to discuss the detailed response, including how to strengthen investment or procurement in the US, he added.
“I think that through this more comprehensive negotiation preparation, we hope that once the United States agrees that Taiwan and the US can have a related negotiation process, the two sides can quickly come to an agreement to promote the progress of the relevant negotiation.”
The tariffs have hammered Taiwan’s stock market.
The government on Tuesday evening announced the activation of its US$15 billion stock stabilisation fund to restore investor confidence and ensure market stability.
The benchmark stock index was down around 1.5 per cent on Wednesday, after hefty losses in the two previous sessions.
Shares in top chipmaker TSMC were flat, while Apple supplier Foxconn’s shares dropped around 4 per cent.
