US, Taiwan sign $250 bil. trade deal, cutting tariffs on Taiwanese goods

HONG KONG — The United States and Taiwan reached a trade deal Thursday that cuts tariffs on Taiwanese goods in exchange for $250 billion in new investments in the U.S. tech industry. The deal is the latest President Donald Trump has struck — such as those with the European Union and Japan — since he unveiled a sweeping tariff plan last April to address trade imbalances. Trump also has a one-year trade truce with China to stabilize ties with the world’s second largest economy. Trump initially set the tariff at 32 percent on Taiwanese goods but later changed it to 20 percent. The new agreement slashes the tariff rate to 15 percent, the same as levied on other U.S. trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region such as Japan and South Korea. In a statement, the U.S. Department of Commerce said the deal with Taiwan would establish an “economic partnership” to create several “world-class” U.S.-based industrial parks in order to help build up domestic production. The department described it as “a historic trade deal that will drive a massive reshoring of America’s semiconductor s

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