THE US move to raise tariffs on Chinese imports will have a limited effect on Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Friday.

The U.S. increased tariffs on 200 billion dollars of Chinese imports from 10 per cent to 25 per cent.

In Taipei, Tsai said the U.S.-China trade war would drastically change the global economic order and existing supply chains but said, however, that the latest U.S. measure would have a limited impact on Taiwan.

Amid the U.S.-China trade war, a number of companies investing in China, including Taiwanese businesses, have considered pulling out their supply chain activities.

Tsai said that Taiwan, with stable economic growth, since 2018 had optimised its environment to attract more overseas investment as a way to respond to the trade dispute.

“`We aim to speed up the process for overseas Taiwanese businesses to return to Taiwan and rebuild the value-added industry chain here,’’ Tsai told a news conference.

On Thursday, Tsai doubled a government goal to attract overseas investment this year to 500 billion Taiwan dollars (15.5 billion dollar) after investments worth of almost 280 billion Taiwan dollars were pledged.

“By the end of this year more measures will be carried out to lure more overseas investment, such as streamlining procedures, simplifying tax regulations and others,’’ Tsai said.

Meanwhile, Tsai said, Taiwan would still be willing to engage in a bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. (dpa/NAN)

– May 10, 2019 @ 10:49 GMT |