'Unreasonable' Trump tariff on Taiwan could fuel scepticism of US

Shock 32 per cent duty calls into question reliability of US as a trusty security partner

- Yip Wai Yee

TAIPEI — In the end, US$100 billion (S$133 billion) was not enough.

The investment by Taiwan's top chipmaker in Arizona, announced on March 4, is expected to create 40,000 jobs and was lauded by US President Donald Trump as "tremendous".

The fresh commitment, which would bring Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) total investment in the US to US$165 billion, was widely seen as being sufficient in inoculating the island from his would-be tariffs.

One month on, that proved to be a vain hope.

On April 2, Mr Trump said Taiwan would be subject to a tariff of 32 per cent — the seventh-highest figure on a list of economies that the US is hitting with reciprocal duties.

"From Taipei's point of view, this outcome stings," said Professor Julien Chaisse, an international trade expert at City University of Hong Kong.

"I believe that officials had hoped that goodwill gestures, like the scale of TSMC's commitment in the United States, would carry weight in Washington," he told The Straits Times.

The higher-than-expected tariffs could further fuel what is known as yi mei lun — the "America scepticism" narrative that questions the reliability of the US as a trusty security partner for Taiwan.

It is mostly spread by pro-Beijing players in Taiwan and disinformation campaigns from China. But Mr Trump's transactional foreign policy has added to the sense of unease that the US may ultimately leave the island hanging in the balance in the event of a Chinese invasion.