TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Former US President Donald Trump repeated his threats on Friday (Oct. 25) to impose tariffs on imports of Taiwan's semiconductors and charge the country a fee for US military protection.
Trump's first mention of Taiwan during a three-hour interview with Joe Rogan on his podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” was a false claim that China “flew 28 bombers over the middle of Taiwan” the day he left office because Chinese leader Xi Jinping (習近平) “doesn't respect Biden at all.” During the third hour, Trump mentioned his proposed tariffs on Taiwan.
Trump said many phones are made by Taiwan's Foxconn in China, “where they have nets around the building to keep people from jumping off the roof because they have so many suicides.” He proposed that phones be made in the US instead, “where you know people are paid good wages, they have health insurance, they're taken care of, they can live a good life…”
The former president said, “That chip deal is so bad. We put up billions of dollars for rich companies to come in and borrow the money and build chip companies here. They're not going to give us the good companies anyway.” Trump was referring to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) US$12 billion (NT$385 billion) project in Arizona, which drew US$6.6 billion in direct funding and up to US$5 billion in loans from the US Commerce Department.
He claimed it was unnecessary for the federal government to help fund such a project because “all you had to do is charge them tariffs.” He said the chip tariffs would be “just like the auto companies” and earlier in the interview, he said he would impose 100% to 200% tariffs on imported cars.
Trump repeated his allegation that Taiwan “stole our chip business.”
Trump said Taiwan wants the US to provide military protection, but “they don't pay us money for the protection." He added, "You know the mob makes you pay money right?”
During an interview with Bloomberg’s Nancy Cook and colleagues at Bloomberg’s Business Week in July, Trump accused Taiwan of stealing the semiconductor business from the US. Trump said he wants Taiwan to pay for US protection and added, “I don’t think we’re any different from an insurance policy. Why? Why are we doing this?”
In a Fox News interview in July, Trump also claimed that Taiwan "took our (chip) business away," and that the US should have "stopped them." He also said the US should have "taxed them" and “tariffed them.”
US Congressman Michael McCaul, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Mario Diaz-Balart, co-chair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, told CNA that Taiwan is one of the largest buyers of US weapons. According to a US International Trade Commission report, US semiconductor firms “still capture the largest share of value created in the global semiconductor industry, though they focus more on the upstream activities such as R&D as well as product design.”
