Taiwan says ‘no information’ on cooperation with South Korea on US chip tariffs

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TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai said on Tuesday he had “no information” about any cooperation with South Korea on U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on semiconductors, adding that Taiwan was conducting talks only with the United States.

South Korea’s trade minister said on Monday he saw room for cooperation with Taiwan on Trump’s tariffs on chips. U.S. officials are privately saying they might not levy long-promised semiconductor tariffs soon, potentially delaying a centrepiece of Trump’s economic agenda, Reuters reported last week.

“There is no such information (about cooperation with South Korea), but we have taken note of this kind of news,” Cho told lawmakers in parliament in Taipei.

Taiwan’s trade negotiators are only conducting one-on-one talks with the United States at present, he said, adding that he hoped Taiwan’s industrial supply chain could cooperate more with countries around the world that are complementary to Taiwan.

Taiwan’s exports to the United States are currently subject to a 20% tariff, which the government is in talks to reduce, though the tariffs do not apply to semiconductors.

Cho said there is relatively more “benign” competition between Taiwan and South Korea in high-tech fields as well as in chip manufacturing and other advanced processes.

Taiwan is home to TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, while major South Korean chipmakers include Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix.

(Reporting by Roger Tung and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)