Taiwanese Vice-Premier Cheng Li-chun said on Thursday that Taiwan’s negotiating team had never promised Washington to evenly split chip production.
“Taiwan has never made any commitment on a ‘50-50’ division, and we will not agree to such terms in the future,” Cheng said.
She added that rather than conceding ground on production capacity, her team was seeking consensus with the US on areas such as supply-chain cooperation and preferential tariff treatment.
She said that trade talks with US officials in Washington in the past week had focused on what Taipei has dubbed the “Taiwan model” – a strategic partnership that would allow the island’s technology industry to remain rooted at home while supporting expansion abroad.
She said the model had four pillars: allowing firms to decide their own investment strategies with government support; creating financial guarantee mechanisms to encourage funding; drawing on Taiwan’s experience in developing science parks to foster industry clusters in the US; and securing commitments from Washington on land, utilities, regulations and visas.
